HARIPUR, Dec 21: Provincial organizer of the PML-N and former NWFP chief minister Pir Sabir Shah has said the pro-US policies of the present regime have turned Pakistan into 53rd American state.

He was speaking at a function organized by the party's youth wing on Monday to celebrate birthday of party leader Nawaz Sharif. Pir Sabir Shah said the rulers' quest for pleasing their foreign masters had exposed the country to terrorism.

Criticizing the policies of President Pervez Musharraf, he said that deletion of the religion column from new passports and giving the Aga Khan Foundation the charge of country's education boards indicated that the rulers were leading the country towards secularism.

He asked the army to go back to barracks and fulfil its constitutional duty of safeguarding the geographical frontiers of the country. The former chief minister urged party workers to maintain unity in their ranks and thwart designs of the rulers.

Former provincial minister Yousuf Ayub, Ali Afzal Khan Jadoon, Sardar Mushtaq and office-bearers of the MSF and party workers were also present on the occasion. Earlier, he administered the oath to the newly-elected office-bearers of the MSF and led a procession through the main bazaar which concluded at the main intersection. The marchers were carrying placards inscribed with slogans against the government and the Aga Khan Foundation.