ISLAMABAD, Feb 13: Pakistan Muslim League-N Information Secretary Siddiqul Farooque has accused the United States of carrying out a propaganda campaign against Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan to "deceive" its own people.

In a press statement issued here on Friday, the PML-N leader said the similar propaganda campaigns were launched by the US before attacking Afghanistan and Iraq.

Commenting on the recent speech of US President George Bush, Mr Farooque said actually he had tried to cool down the criticism he was facing within the country for "attacking Iraq on the basis of false intelligence reports."

He said the US was using the name of Dr Qadeer, as it did in the case of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussain before taking military action in Afghanistan and Iraq. He said the US President was actually running his election campaign and playing with the sentiments of his people.

Criticizing Gen Pervez Musharraf for "following the US dictates", Mr Farooque said the country was heading towards a dangerous situation. He said difficult times did come on nations but it didn't mean complete surrender.