Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif accused Washington of 'exploiting' Pakistan for strategic interests and throwing it away 'like a used piece of toilet paper'.
Talking about Islamabad's past alignment with the United States in Pakistan's National Assembly, Asif said Pakistan often denied its terror history, calling it a "mistake committed by dictators in the past."
Saying that the terrorism in Pakistan was due to past mistakes, the Pakistani minister called Islamabad's involvement in two Afghan wars 'a mistake,'
According to media reports, he said Pakistan's decision to realign with Washington after 1999, in connection with Afghanistan, caused long-term harm to the country.
The Defence Minister said the costs of realigning with US after the September 11, 2001, attacks, were devastating. "Pakistan was treated worse than a piece of toilet paper and was used for a purpose and then thrown away," he said.
In the post-2001 period, he said, Islamabad aligned itself with Washington in the US-led Afghan war. While US withdrew from the region, Pakistan was left with radicalisation and strained economy, he added.
He argued against the claim that Pakistan’s role in the Afghan wars was based on religious commitment.
He told lawmakers that "two former military dictators (Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf) had joined the war in Afghanistan, not for the sake of Islam, but to appease a superpower."
"Terrorism is a blowback of the mistakes committed by dictators in the past," he added.