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A former Chief of Staff Nana Ato Dadzie has said it is �fundamentally wrong� and �ridiculous� for anyone to flak president John Evans Atta-Mills for appointing pardoned former public officials to head key positions in his present government. A pressure group, Forum for Public Accountability (FPA), on Tuesday lashed out at the president for appointing what it called �ex-convicts� to serve in a very sensitive and big budget state institutions and offices in his administration. The group mentioned Ghana Gas Company chief, George Sipa Yankey, Agricultural Development Bank�s board chairman, Ibrahim Adams, Ghana�s Envoy to Malaysia, Daniel Abodakpi and Trust Bank board chairman, Kwame Peprah, as the four ex-convicts whose continuous stay in office under the present administration can endanger the nation�s public funds. However, the legal practitioner argued that since former president John Agyekum Kufuor pardoned the quartet before leaving office, it would be erroneous for anyone to tag them as �ex-convicts. � �To say that the president had appointed ex-convicts is actually to indicate that the concept of pardon is not recognised by anybody,� Nana Dadzie told Joy FM on Tuesday. �I don�t understand. It was the former president who exercised the power of pardon in respect of these gentlemen. So once the pardon goes out the people become free, they are no longer convicts. � The former chief of staff under the J. J Rawlings administration said it would be outlandish to whip the president in public like the FPA is doing now since he has not erred or disrespected any part of the constitution. �They have been given free and unconditional pardon. The president who comes to appoint these persons to positions now becomes the one to be lashed? This is ridiculous. I think that we must draw the line. If we walk on the path of morality I think we�ll be missing the gun. �The law says that a person who has been convicted may be granted free and unconditional pardon by the president. The former president knowing the consequences of all of these with his legal advisers decided he will grant a pardon for whatever reason,� he added. Nana Dadzie added: �It could also be that probably they realised an error in the trial, it could also be that for the purposes of stability of the state they decided to let bygones be bygones. Pardon is a very important function of the constitution and stability of the state. �