That police has registered a case against 121 lawyers for attacking and ransacking the office of the Sialkot assistant commissioner is just a start. Its investigation should be monitored strictly so all unnamed lawyers in the report are identified. But what should be expected once the cases of these rogue lawyers are routed to their own institution, which is already only too guilty of tolerating and condoning their behaviour far too often? Once again, like so many times in the past, gangs of lawyers took to the streets and blatantly broke too many laws to be counted all at once, in broad daylight, just because something happened that wasn’t quite to their liking; in this case the AC’s decision to have an “illegal structure” demolished during an anti-encroachment drive in the city. Firstly, you’d expect lawyers to understand better than everybody else that there are procedures in place to deal with just such situations; when, for example, they disagree with a certain decision of the civil administration. And secondly, you’d also expect the state to straighten them out when they go about blocking roads, attacking government offices, breaking and throwing furniture on the streets, and shouting filthy slogans against an officer of the state. Surely nobody’s forgotten how they behaved after the PIC incident in Lahore, and how the judicial hierarchy dealt with the issue. Now, what do they have to say about their junior comrades who’ve made a habit of behaving like power-drunk bullies while their uniform says they are meant to uphold the law? Previous cases registered against lawyers are not moving forward, largely because of post-event reconciliation and pressure tactics, and this has only led to more lawlessness and unacceptable behavior on their part. Now that things have sprung out of proportion like this, and that too for so long, it is squarely the state’s responsibility to restore order. Again, registering cases against law-breaking lawyers ought to be just one aspect of the state’s response. It must also make sure that nothing like this is ever allowed to happen again. And for that, it must stand ready to crush the next such foul show of force from a bunch of clearly degenerate lawyers bent upon bringing a bad name to their entire community. *