On another Sunday, the honourable court donned the black gown to hear yet another case of the embattled PTI Chief Imran Khan. This time, the hearing pertained to an arrest warrant issued over the threatening speech against a woman judge. While the former prime minister’s offer to apologise had seen him escape the indictment, the demons of “crossing a line” refuse to leave him alone. His political fortunes may have been restored but as someone feistily promising “to play till the last ball,” he is finding it incredibly hard to get the stars aligned in his favour. For now, he has managed to secure an interim bail while the interior minister is left scampering for an alternate route to criminalise his adversary’s offence: the parliament. Since Mr Khan himself has never batted an eyelid before dragging the law and the bench in street fights, any criticism of this fierce, pull-no-punches determination of a crusade (increasingly resembling a witchhunt with each passing day) would be akin to choosing between the pot and the kettle. Both sides have tarnished the neutrality of the state to pursue petty agendas with no regard to who or what suffers as collateral damage. No good can come from scraping the scab off a wound over and over and over again. Whether said in the heat of the moment or with a happy-go-lucky, hell-may-care sensuousness, Mr Khan’s onslaught against the bedrock of our nation–the higher judiciary–cannot be justified, especially when a woman stood on the other side of his barrel. But when an apology is good enough for the same institution, it should be good enough for the politicians busy scraping the bottom. Not every headline is worth feeding the vengeful narrative. Sometimes, letting the law take its course is the best available option. As for Mr Imran Khan, restraint, restraint and a little more restraint remains the only way out because unless he turns a new leaf overnight and starts relying on the strength of his arguments than the crassness of his expression, this roller-coaster ride will not end anytime soon. He cannot expect the august court to offer a courteous deal just because of his stature every single time. *