New Delhi: Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has slammed his nation’s decades-long alliance with the US, accusing Washington of using Islamabad for strategic gains before abandoning it like “toilet paper”.
In a speech in Pakistan’s National Assembly Tuesday, Asif described the country’s post-1999 realignment with the US, when it became the nation’s ally in its war against terror in Afghanistan, as a “historic error” that inflicted serious political, social, and economic damage.
“In a landmark speech of Hillary Clinton at the UN, she described how they left Pakistan like a piece of toilet paper. But we didn’t learn our lesson, we again started celebrating when (former US president) Bill Clinton visited us for just two hours (in 2000),” he said.
“Pakistan was treated worse than a piece of toilet paper and was used for a purpose and then thrown away,” he added.
He termed Pakistan’s involvement in the war an “expensive gamble” that sowed seeds of instability and radicalisation still plaguing the country today.
Asif further rejected the long-held narrative that Pakistan’s role in the 1980s’ Soviet-Afghan war was driven by religious duty. “People were rallied to battle in the name of jihad, but the term was misapplied and detrimental,” he said.
He alleged that Pakistan’s education system was overhauled to justify its involvement, embedding ideological changes that persist.
The anti-Soviet fight, he argued, was shaped by US geopolitical interests, and not by genuine religious imperatives, planting “long-term instability and radicalisation”.
Post-9/11 fallout
Regarding the post-9/11 US-led war on terror, Asif blamed military dictators Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf for dragging Pakistan into the fray as an opponent of the Taliban.
Pakistan had previously, in the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan, supported the mujahideen that eventually became the Taliban.
Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, aligned Pakistan with the US after 9/11. In 2001, he assured then US president George W. Bush of full cooperation against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Islamabad provided holistic support by offering airspace, logistics, all military facilities, intelligence, and manpower.
Since 2002, Pakistan reportedly received over $33 billion in aid from the US, but public backlash grew over sovereignty and there rose rebel organisations like Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which primarily operates along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
“We can never make up for the losses as these were irreversible blunders turning Pakistan into a chessboard for others’ squabbles,” Asif said.
Pakistan’s alignment with US interests has long been contentious domestically. Islamabad has been seen to prioritise foreign agendas over national stability, fuelling militancy and economic strain.
In the wake of Asif’s address, Zalmay Khalilzad, former US ambassador to Afghanistan and special envoy for Taliban talks, posted on X Wednesday: “It is well known that Pakistan received military and financial support for assisting America in our operations in Afghanistan.”
“It is also well known that the Pakistani establishment was simultaneously providing sanctuary to those fighting against the US forces in Afghanistan,” he added.
Loss of identity
In his speech, Asif also invoked K.K. Aziz’s book The Murder of History.
Referring to it, he said: “We have failed to create our own national heroes. We have made invaders our heroes. We have even named our missiles and landmarks after them.”
He underscored the nation’s collective amnesia about freedom fighters who battled British colonial rule and sacrificed their lives.
“We don’t recall those freedom fighters who fought against Britain and laid down their lives,” Asif said, urging a reclamation of national pride. “Now more than half of our population has been looking to the west to trace their origins, but we are the people of this land.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)