Addressing a Meet The Press programme here on Wednesday night, the minister said that having the enquiry conducted by the UN team had earned the government creditability.

He said that he criticised people like Gen. (Retd) Hameed Gul for muddying the situation. Hameed Gul was a frustrated man and the nation today was facing consequences of whatever he and his colleagues had been doing in the past, he said.

He did not agree with Dr. Babar Awan's statement about clinical death of Begum Nusrat Bhutto and pointed out that her state was critical but she was not clinically dead.

Answering a question about escape of backup vehicle carrying Babar Awan and Rehman Malik in the wake of attack on Benazir Bhutto, the minister termed the reports 'kite-flying' and an attempt to twist the report's contents.

He said that the UN commission had held the Musharraf government responsible for the incident and warned whosoever was found involved in any way would not be spared.

Mr Shah said that passage of the 18th amendment had proved that political parties had come of age. The clause in the amendment about formation of judicial commission reflected aspirations of people as well as the PPP's commitment to select and appoint judges in a transparent manner, he said.

He praised PML-N leader Mian Nawaz Sharif for his party's contribution to the amendment and his presence at the signing ceremony at the President's House.

The minister said that the parliament was supreme and its prerogative to amend the Constitution could not be questioned.

However, he said, the Supreme Court was competent to interpret any law blamed some lawyers for causing confusion over the issue. He praised statements of eminent lawyers Aitzaz Ahsan, Justice (Retd) Tariq Mahmood, Ali Ahmed Kurd and Asma Jahangir in which they had defended supremacy of the parliament.

He said the government had inherited the nagging power crisis from Musharraf government and expressed the fear the problem was not likely to be resolved before December 2012.

Till that time the government had decided to use rental power plants and take measures to kick off Thar Coal Power Plant, which would generate 2,500 megawatts, he said.

He rejected recent statements attributed to Iranian envoy, making an offer to provide electricity to Pakistan within six month and said he had personally talked to the envoy and even if the offer was accepted it would take about five years to put in place infrastructure to bring electricity from Iran to Pakistan.

The rental plants were comparatively good alternative because they would meet the immediate demand, he said. Besides, a unit of Iranian electricity would cost eight cents which was higher than the power generated by rental plants, he claimed.

The minister disclosed that besides Fata and Balochistan, power theft in Sindh was quite high. It was 40 per cent as compared to just five per cent in Punjab, he said.