The former ambassador B. A. Malik, while holding forth on serious issues, often conveniently overlooks certain obvious questions. As the ex-ambassador is a great advocate of democracy and the rule of law, may I ask him to add the following also to his list; (a) Should the politicians be allowed to keep plundering the national wealth making them billionaires overnight? (b) Should the parliament give Carte Blanche to such politicians through NROs? (c) Should the democratic rulers be only from the hereditary party leadership? (d) Should merit be trampled for considerations of party affiliations? The list can be long but for the time being the above could suffice. -COLONEL (Rtd) RIAZ JAFRI, Rawalpindi, October 21.