Pakistan ‘Used and Discarded’: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s Blunt Admission in Parliament

Pakistan has publicly confronted one of the most controversial chapters of its foreign policy, with Defence Minister Khawaja Asif admitting in Parliament that the country allowed itself to be used by the United States and then discarded once its strategic value faded.

In a blunt and unusually candid address, Khawaja Asif described Pakistan's alignment with Washington as a grave mistake that weakened the country and left it facing long-term instability. His remarks marked a rare acknowledgment from within the Pakistani government of the cost of decades spent serving external interests.

Pakistan's role in US-led wars questioned

The defence minister said Pakistan's decision to side with the United States after 1999, particularly during the Afghanistan conflict, proved deeply damaging. According to him, Pakistan was drawn into wars that were never truly its own, resulting in security, economic and social crises that continue to haunt the nation.

Asif rejected the long-standing claim that Pakistan's involvement in Afghanistan was driven by religious obligation. He said the idea of "jihad" was deliberately promoted to mobilise people under a false narrative, a strategy that ultimately fuelled extremism and internal violence across Pakistan.

In a striking admission, Asif revealed that Pakistan's education system was reshaped to support these wars. Ideological changes were introduced, he said, to justify participation in conflicts driven by foreign geopolitical agendas rather than Pakistan's national interest.

Pakistan Minister Acknowledges Past Mistakes

Referring to the anti-Soviet war of the 1980s, Asif stated that religion was used as a tool while the real objective was to serve American strategic goals. Pakistan, he said, paid the price long after global powers achieved their aims.

The defence minister also criticised former military rulers, naming General Zia-ul-Haq and General Pervez Musharraf for tying Pakistan to external conflicts for short-term gains. Those decisions, he said, left behind terrorism, radicalisation and economic damage that the country continues to struggle with.

After the September 11 attacks, Pakistan turned against the Taliban to support the US-led war on terror. However, Asif noted that when the United States withdrew from Afghanistan years later, Pakistan was left alone to deal with the fallout.

'Irreversible damage' to Pakistan

Describing the consequences as permanent, Asif told Parliament that the losses Pakistan suffered could never be fully compensated. His remarks reflected a painful national reckoning - that Pakistan allowed itself to become entangled in global power politics at the cost of its own stability.