LAHORE, June 6: Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Sunday that the situation in Karachi could not be set right overnight and steps were being taken to improve it.

Talking to reporters here, he said there was no possibility of governor's rule or an operation like the one launched by former interior minister Naseerullah Babar to combat lawlessness. The situation needed careful handling, the minister said.

He refused to offer comments on President Musharraf's reluctance to comment on the fate or performance of Prime Minister Jamali. "The president himself is in a better position to comment on his statement."

He said he would also not like to add anything to what PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Husain had said on the subject. About the uniform of Gen Musharraf, the minister said the general would not take any step violative of the 17th constitutional amendment, which had set Dec 31 as the last date for the president to shed his uniform.

Asked whether the president could delay his decision under the said amendment, as proposed by various leaders, Sheikh Rashid said he was not a practising lawyer and thus could not say anything more on the subject.

He told a questioner that the MMA was the real opposition and it had the right to have its nominee as opposition leader in the Senate. He said Pakistan had shown unparalleled efficiency in tracking down terrorists. He recalled some 500 such people had been arrested so far.

Compared to this, he said, developed countries with the most sophisticated technology could not trace the people wanted by them. In response to a question, the minister said Osama bin Laden might or might not be in Pakistan.

He could also be in the United States, teaching students, the minister said. He said it was the failure of the entire world that despite all the advancement in technology "nobody knows where he is".

About reports that US troops had crossed into Pakistan's territory, the minister said that diplomatically it was a great thing that the US had admitted its mistake. He also made it clear that those who had allegedly crossed into Pakistan had not done so with aggressive designs.

Responding to a question about the involvement of some sepoys in the assassination attempts on Gen Musharraf, the minister said it did not mean that radical elements had an influence in the armed forces.

Ruling out the possibility of talks with the exiled leaders, the minister said the government would not have deported the leader who flew in on May 11 (Mian Shahbaz Sharif) had it been thinking on these lines.

He did not agree with the suggestion that the government policy on Wana had failed. Before the press conference, he called on Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain at his residence to discuss various matters.