Pakistan was treated ‘worse than toilet paper’ by US, Khawaja Asif admits in parliament

Pakistan defence minister lashes out at US in parliament

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has delivered one of his most blunt critiques yet of Islamabad’s past alignment with the United States, accusing Washington of exploiting Pakistan for strategic gain and abandoning it once its objectives were met.

Speaking in Pakistan’s National Assembly, Asif said repeated decisions to side with the US, particularly in Afghanistan, had caused deep, long-lasting damage to the country.

Reflecting on Pakistan’s post-1999 realignment with Washington, especially after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Asif described the move as a historic miscalculation whose consequences Pakistan continues to endure.

He said the country had entered conflicts that were never in its national interest and paid a heavy price in return. Using unusually stark language on the floor of Parliament, he said Pakistan was treated “worse than toilet paper”, used and then discarded.

Khwaja Asif admits in Parliament that Pakistan rented itself out to the U.S. for war and was later discarded “like toilet paper”. Afghanistan was destroyed by policies now openly acknowledged in parliament. Millions suffered. Generations were lost. The world cannot look away now… pic.twitter.com/aEQjrm16ME

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Challenging decades of official narratives, Asif rejected the claim that Pakistan’s involvement in the Afghan conflicts was driven by religious obligation. He acknowledged that Pakistanis were mobilised and sent to fight under the banner of jihad, calling that framing misleading and deeply damaging. According to the defence minister, even Pakistan’s education system was reshaped to justify these wars, with ideological changes that remain embedded today.

Asif argued that the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan during the 1980s was dictated by American geopolitical interests rather than any genuine religious imperative. He said the circumstances never warranted a declaration of jihad, yet Pakistan became deeply involved, creating instability whose effects are still being felt decades later.

Turning to the post-2001 period, Asif said Pakistan once again aligned itself with Washington in the US-led war on terror, turning against the Taliban in the process. While the United States eventually withdrew from the region, he noted, Pakistan was left grappling with prolonged violence, radicalisation and economic strain.

The defence minister also criticised former military rulers Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf, accusing them of drawing Pakistan into external wars that were not its own. He said these decisions left the country bearing the fallout long after its allies had moved on.

“The losses we suffered can never be compensated,” Asif told lawmakers, calling those choices irreversible mistakes that reduced Pakistan to a pawn in conflicts driven by others.