Islamabad, Feb 12 (IANS) Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said that Pakistan’s involvement in Afghanistan’s decades of conflict was driven by political legitimacy and securing support from global powers instead of religious motives, local media reported.
In his recent remarks at the National Assembly, Asif stated that Pakistan’s involvement in wars related to Afghanistan, starting during the Cold War and continuing after September 11, 2001 attack was a strategic choice to get backing of international community, especially the United States, Afghan media outlet Amu Tv reported.
“We did not enter these wars to defend Islam or for jihad.” Asif said in his speech. “We entered them for political legitimacy and to secure the support of a superpower.”
Asif said Pakistan’s policies towards Afghanistan since independence have been made according to shifting geopolitical calculations. He stated that what was termed as jihad during the Soviet-Afghan war was actually a proxy conflict which had participation of major powers, Amu Tv reported.
“That was not jihad. It was the war of a superpower.” Asif stated, “And for that war, we changed our education system. Even today, that curriculum has not been fully corrected.”
He mentioned that Pakistan rewrote its history according to the conflict narrative, highlighting the long-term social and ideological impact of those policies. “We reshaped society, politics and religion to fit that so-called jihad.”
Khawaja Asif admitted that Pakistan did not learn after the Soviet withdrawal and again aligned itself with the US following the 9/11 attacks, remaining involved in the Washington-led war in Afghanistan for nearly 20 years, Amu Tv reported.
“For not one decade, but two decades, we rented ourselves out.” He further said, “The only objective was to gain American support.”
He stated that none of those behind the 9/11 attacks were Afghans and Afghanistan as a country was not responsible for it. However, he said that Pakistan became involved in the subsequent war following the 9/11 attacks. He said that Pakistan’s leadership has repeatedly failed to admit mistakes they made in the past.
–IANS
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