AFTER all this time, since the SC gave its verdict on the NRO, the governments foot-dragging to carry out the orders leaves little doubt that its overriding concern is to challenge the writ of the apex judiciary. On the face of it the government is missing the most fundamental point that it is the SCs prerogative to review and interpret the legislation as well as the Constitution. At least this is the impression the government has been giving and actually making out the faultlines on which it now openly intends to take on the Courts authority. Meanwhile, one had never expected Prime Minister Gilani to be so full of contradictions; one day he is saying that the SC does have the power to interpret the constitution, the next he reverts to the Zardari camp and starts articulating its distorted logic. The barefaced impudence with which the government has been literally poking fun at the Supreme Court has intensified with the passage of time and now it seems it is in a mood to go on a full-scale offensive. The latest salvo comes from the Federal Governments brazen reply to the SC that the 18th Amendment issue was now a closed book and that it could not be challenged in a court of law. Likewise, the SCs nomination of Tariq Khosa as the head of the BoP investigation team, where it is perfectly in consonance with law is being blown out of proportion. It is being argued that the judiciary is deliberately poking its nose in the affairs of the executive. Truth is that the courts are just doing their duty. How can the NAB be trusted to carry out an impartial probe into the BoP scam when its ultimate boss the Federal Law Minister Baber Awan happens to have been implicated in the plot? Therefore, it should be perfectly clear that what SC wants is supremacy of rule of law and is not in any way overstepping its authority. However, if the government is harbouring hopes of repressing the judiciary, it is utterly mistaken. Its frenzied scramble for shielding a coterie of Zardari cronies and errant ministers would have harmful implications for democracy.