It is a matter of great shame that the PPP-led government continues to defy Supreme Court on a variety of cases. Its recent decision in a string of attacks on the independent character of the SC has been the suspension of the Additional Director General FIA Zafar Qureshi who was taking firm action in the NICL scam, had recovered Rs 1.75 billion from the looters and most importantly was leading investigations in an impartial manner. The reason given for his suspension was that he had written a letter to the DG FIA and had asked him to cancel the transfer orders of four officers. It was charged that the contents of the letter had been disclosed to the media deliberately. In fact, as explained by him he had only written the letter to DG FIA and had never tried to politicise the issue. Truth is that the government has given him marching orders because it does not want the investigations to go in accordance with rule of law. There have been reports that the decision to show the door to Mr Qureshi was taken immediately after Chaudhry brothers meeting with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Interior Minister Rehman Malik. All this game appears to be in play to protect Moonis Elahi, who is already in custody and suspected to be one of the main culprits in the entire scam. It bears pointing out that the Supreme Court had earlier cancelled the transfer notification of Mr Qureshi and had ordered him to carry on with the investigations. Satisfied with his performance, the SC wanted him to take the investigations to their logical end as quickly as possible. So far three federal secretaries are in the soup facing contempt of court proceedings, while DG FIA Malik Iqbal for his brazen act to remove investigation officers has already been indicted with contempt charges. Indeed one fully agrees with the argument of the Supreme Court that the main attempt of the government has been to replace truthful and conscientious officers carrying out the investigations, with errant ones. The government will deal a big blow to its credibility and cause a serious judicial crisis which would be detrimental to democracy as well as the stability of the present dispensation. The Supreme Court has already told the government that its patience was wearing thin and that it wants rule of law to reign supreme. The government must not forget that it was the same judiciary that bravely and successfully stood its ground against manoeuvrings of General Musharraf and came out as a winner. The way forward lies in respecting its orders.