FOR the President to circumvent the verdict of the court and bail his trusted friend Interior Minister Rehman Malik out of the grip of the law by pardoning him under Article 45 of the Constitution should be no surprise to the nation. Mr Zardari has been at it several times before. One would have wished, though, that he had let Mr Malik file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Lahore High Court order, and the SC had upheld the LHCs verdict, before making such a move. However, it is quite plain that his action directly flows from the resolve to escape, at any cost, the likely punishment for himself in the cases of corruption pending against him. Thus, the President has so far successfully tried to evade implementation of the Supreme Court judgement on the disgraceful National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), and defiantly given party tickets for bye-elections to fake degree holders, whom the apex court had characterised as lacking the moral fibre required for holding any such office. Not only did the President choose these shady characters, who would not hesitate to cheat and lie to get what they wanted, to represent the PPP in the National Assembly, but the Prime Minister, most likely on direction from him, also went to Jamshed Dastis constituency to canvass public support for him. Such is the group of people that forms the top layer of our leadership. In fact, the ruling party, as a whole, seems to be bent upon disobeying the court orders, particularly of the Supreme Court on the NRO or on any cases where the party big fish could be caught by the long arm of the law. The blatant use of the presidential prerogative of pardoning Rehman Malik carries serious implications. While not questioning the act of pardon, except on moral grounds, constitutional legal experts have expressed their views about the future of Mr Malik, raising the point that the pardon, in any case, does not absolve him of his sins for which he was found guilty by the Accountability Court, and that he remains a convict who, under the law of the land, is banned from holding any public office. The next concern of the Pakistani public is whether the Prime Minister retains him in the Cabinet or he is booted out. Nothing much should be expected from Mr Gilani. As we have said before in these columns, he is playing the lead role in defending, by hook or by crook, the NRO-tainted lot, and also the PPPs or the Presidents causes other than the NRO. Unashamedly, he has gone out of the way to affirm that there is no bar on the President from holding two offices, disregarding the established norm that that specific conclusion is for the Lahore High Court, which is seized of the issue, to reach. Unless the ruling set of people give up this defiant attitude, we are fast heading towards an executive-judiciary confrontation that could have serious consequences for the countrys polity.