DESPITE having agitated against certain judicial personalities for at least three days, the lawyers, it seems, have not yet thought it fit to check their anger and calmly reflect on the consequences of their unbecoming behaviour on the legal profession as well as their own reputation. They ransacked the office of the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, Khwaja Muhammad Sharif on September 30, for not acceding to their demand to transfer District and Session Judge Zawar Ahmed Sheikh. The attack on the office of the CJ and their subsequent protests brought the police in the picture, who used teargas and batons to disperse them. Subsequently, the events turned violent, with both the police and the lawyers severely beating up each other. So far, several protesting lawyers and policemen have been injured, as a result of these clashes. And when the journalists, responding to the call of their profession, tried to take snaps of the acts of vandalism, they were also badly manhandled. The force used by the police to control the protesting crowd has been so excessive that Pakistan Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had to take notice. Now, the Punjab Bar Council has suspended the membership of the LHC Chief Justice, former Presidents of the Supreme Court Bar Association Aitzaz Ahsan and Hamid Khan and its current President Qazi Anwar, and former President Lahore High Court Bar Association Nasira Javed Iqbal. At the same time, 34 judges of the lower courts have sent in their resignations to the LHC Chief Justice. It is unfortunate that things should come to such a sad pass. That an educated community, which had gained the respect of the entire nation for successfully leading the movement for the restoration of the deposed judiciary to uphold the rule of law in the country, should be getting involved in disturbing the peace, is, indeed, a great pity. And if the allegation that Minister Babar Awan has been responsible for sowing the seeds of dissension between the Bench and the Bar and between the lawyers themselves has any basis, there could not have been a greater disservice to the country that is passing through a most critical phase of its history. The calls for strike by the lawyers not only result in an unnecessary waste of time and energy, but also cause great inconvenience to the litigants - a large number of whom have to come from long distances. It is time that the leaders among the lawyers and the government, who hold the key to bringing the situation back to normal, should work together to calm the frayed nerves.