Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has delivered one of his most blunt statements yet in Parliament, accusing the United States of using Pakistan for its own strategic needs and then abandoning it without concern.

Speaking during the parliamentary session, Asif criticised Islamabad’s decision to re-enter the Afghanistan conflict after 1999, saying Pakistan once again chose to align itself with Washington in the hope of gaining American backing. He said this approach ultimately proved disastrous and left the country suffering consequences that continue even today.

Asif described the decision as a serious mistake, stating that Pakistan’s pursuit of US support came at a high cost. He said the damage caused by those policies was long-term and irreversible, and Pakistan continues to bear the burden decades later.

In a strong challenge to Pakistan’s long-standing official narrative, Khawaja Asif rejected the idea that Pakistan’s involvement in the Afghanistan conflict was based on religious duty. He said Pakistanis were mobilised and sent into conflict under the banner of jihad, but called that framing misleading and harmful.

He directly stated, “JIHAD WAS MISUSED,” arguing that the war in Afghanistan during the 1980s was not truly a religious cause but was instead driven by American geopolitical interests.

Asif insisted that the circumstances at that time never justified a declaration of jihad. He said the narrative was shaped in a way that encouraged Pakistanis to participate in wars that were not genuinely their own.

He further said Pakistan’s education system was also reshaped to legitimise such conflicts. According to him, changes were made to promote the ideological basis of these wars, and many of those changes remain embedded in society even today.

He warned that this misuse of religion and ideology created lasting harm and helped create instability that has not been fully undone.

Khawaja Asif said the decision to realign with the US after 1999 became even more damaging after the September 11, 2001, attacks. He claimed Pakistan was drawn into the US-led war on terror and forced to deal with its fallout long after Washington moved on.

He accused former military rulers of pulling Pakistan into conflicts that served foreign interests. Referring to the country’s leadership during those periods, Asif said late military rulers Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf were responsible for entangling Pakistan in external wars, leaving Pakistan to absorb the consequences.

Using unusually harsh language, the defence minister told lawmakers that Pakistan was treated “worse than toilet paper,” saying the country was used for a purpose and then discarded.

He described the post-2001 period as especially destructive. Asif said Pakistan turned against the Taliban to support the US-led war on terror. However, he noted that Washington eventually withdrew, while Pakistan remained trapped in the violence and instability that followed.

He said Pakistan continued to face the effects of that involvement in the form of radicalisation, ongoing violence, and economic strain.

Asif stressed that the losses Pakistan suffered due to these decisions were beyond repair. He said, “The losses we suffered can never be compensated,” and described those choices as irreversible mistakes.

He added that Pakistan’s involvement in conflicts that were not truly its own created deep social damage and long-term instability. According to him, Pakistan became a pawn in wars shaped by others, and the country is still struggling to recover from the results.

The defence minister’s comments were seen as one of the strongest admissions from a senior Pakistani official about the long-term consequences of aligning with US-led wars in the region.