He would become the only chief executive in the country’s history who would be indicted formally in a contempt of court case.

In any civilised society, the chief executive (prime minister) is looked upon as a symbol for the rule of law and the one who enforces the law and follows the Constitution to regulate the society in the best interest of the people.

However, Gilani has chosen to be remembered as a contemnor, a violator and a major hurdle in the way of rule of law. His hat is already full of feathers due to his regime’s record in corruption, bad governance, misrule and nepotism.

The Supreme Court had given him all possible opportunities to uphold rule of law by implementing the apex court’s order in the NRO case but Gilani has opted to be remembered as a loyal to his soiled party leadership.

As a matter of fact, the NRO judgement is not the only judgement of the apex court which Gilani has not implemented for various political considerations despite repeated orders of the court to do so. Most of these non-implemented judgements pertain to mega corruption cases. The oath of his office makes it obligatory on him to look after the interest of the people in the best possible way but Gilani is showing his allegiance to party leadership.

The Makhdoom from Multan was never a prime minister’s material and during his four-year tenure, he proved to be a failure time and again. He had a lot chances to grow in the job and act like a leader but every time he disappointed people and acted like a pygmy at best and a puppet at worst.

Pakistan under Gilani has been badly hurt and almost all of the state institutions have been pushed to the brink of complete collapse because of corruption and bad governance.

A corruption of Rs8,500 billion has been recorded during these four years as per the Transparency International’s assessment. As per the government’s own statistics almost Rs4,500 billion were lost in the war on terror.

Such is the bad shape of the country’s economy under Gilani that the IMF Report 2012 on Pakistan said that the government’s macroeconomic policies are such that the economy is increasingly vulnerable, with weak growth, persistent inflation, rising balance-of payments pressures, and few buffers to absorb shocks.

About the nature of the government’s intervention in the economy, the IMF said, for instance, agricultural procurement and electricity subsidies, patronage, weak management, poor service delivery and other governance issues have created a fertile ground for rent-seeking and corruption.

Like IMF and Transparency International, other world bodies have also been producing embarrassing reports about Pakistan under Gilani’s rule. Poverty is all time high and according to some assessments 110 million people do not have enough food to eat.

Generally all that the country has seen and experienced during the last four years is too much to digest for the people of Pakistan. Gilani might be thinking of becoming a martyr but his departure would make the people jump in the streets with joy. His exit from the office of the chief executive would be seen as an end to the blotted era of incompetence and corruption. There would be hardly anyone to shed even a crocodile tear.

Even those, who used Gilani for their vested interests may not feel sorry for him or remember him for even a short time.