VIOLENCE begets violence. As Karachi burned on April 9, it was less than two months after the February elections when spring and hope blossomed albeit briefly.

For once, the 'R' word du jour was reconciliation instead of revenge as the new government took the oath. Revenge was exacted through democracy (a brilliant catchphrase even if it is idealistic), through the mediated will of the people rather than the power politics of the ruling elite.

The images of reconciliation were powerful Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif laughing it up in the VIP gallery of the parliament as MNAs were sworn in; Zardari being warmly received in the bosom of the MQM at its headquarters Nine Zero. Certainly there were misgivings. When bitter enemies turn brothers, the national impulse is one of cynicism, but it was at least tempered with a 'maybe'.

Maybe, this time, things would be different from the tumble-dry democracy of the nineties when cycles of BB and Sharif were sprinkled with the detergents of ehtesab and jail. Only Pakistan is not ready for clean — but just more — blood.

The country needed reconciliation and healing, after a year when it had been scraped raw with unrelenting death and destruction — both human and constitutional. It has been more than a year after March 2007 when the lawyers first took to the streets but the blood has still not been staunched. Karachi is burning again after May 12 and Dec 27, another date to remember is April 9, 2008. While peace was not going to come easily, this date rankles all the more because it followed that brief bloom of hope.

The blame game is on, of course. It's the lawyers. No, it's the caretaker government. It's the MQM, the PML-Q, the PPP, the PML-N. In Pakistan, blame is dispensed more freely than justice or answers, which means we will never know for sure what happened and who was responsible. “The perpetrators will be brought to justice,” thunders the government. “Are they ever?” Pakistan asks wearily and warily.

These 'perpetrators' tend to run amok in Karachi. The city is a tinderbox of grievances and frustrations and the slightest spark is all it needs. It's a vast, unruly city with tectonic plates of ethnicity, politics and crime. Power cuts will spiral into rioting and a lawyers' quarrel leaps into flames. But let us not forget that violence begets violence.

When Karachi burned on May 12, the PML-Q leadership and President Musharraf were busy in a self-congratulatory exercise, safely ensconced behind bullet-proof glass. Not one word of condolence, grief or acknowledgment was uttered during that sham affair. When Karachi again burned in Dec and Jan, the PML-Q stoked ethnic passions with talk of Punjabis being targeted by Sindhis.

So while former Chief Minister Arbab Rahim and former federal minister Sher Afgan being thrashed is uncivilised, shameful and condemnable, the acts are not out of the blue. Let's not forget that hundreds of lawyers and PML-N workers have been jailed and beaten up in 2007. Public sentiment has been inflamed and it's a fire that cannot be so easily doused by a splash of democracy. So while what happened is deplorable, it is also understandable. Violence begets violence. Does it make it right? No. Does it make it inevitable when polarisation has gotten more acute in the country in the last few years? Yes.

Thrashing public figures is symptomatic of this polarisation. Former federal state minister Tariq Azeem, PTI chief Imran Khan, deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and one of President Musharraf's legal whizzes Ahmed Reza Kasuri have all suffered beatings and humiliation. Indeed, the lawyers' pet chant of 'Go Musharraf Go' reflects the same mentality when individuals are castigated for the crimes of a collective lot.

Musharraf's speedy exit may not guarantee an independent judiciary and foreign policy, a de-politicised army, cuts in defence spending, a lower inflation rate and fewer suicide bombings. Yet he needs to resign because he has become such a polarising figure, not because he is the fount of all evil.

It's safe to say that the lawyers have suffered their first public relations disaster from black-coated super heroes championing the supremacy of the law, Constitution and justice at great cost to their livelihood, they are suddenly hooligans who think they are above the law — just like the president that they so ardently decry.

It doesn't seem to make sense when their primary demand — the restoration of the deposed judges — is so nearly being met. But then, it has been a year and the lawyers' victory was tossed out of the window in Nov.

Despite the Bhurban Declaration, there have been such conflicting reports on the intentions of Asif Ali Zardari and the PPP towards the deposed judges that the lawyers have gotten edgy. But just as a handful of militant religious extremists do not represent the vast majority of Muslims, so too a few lawyers-turned-ruffians should not be allowed to undermine a just cause. Meanwhile, Karachi burned. The country is on edge again. The political squabbling continues.