Strange indeed are the idiosyncrasies of our unpredictable democracy. A villain can become a hero in no time and even the mediocre ones can hope to occupy the seat of power on sheer strength of their riches or feudal links. It is quite amazing to note that two former prime ministers, a chief minister and a PPP bigwig, who is the linchpin of party today, were in exile till recently and returned home only after the 'big boss' agreed. One political bigwig though is still comfortably settled in UK from where he pulls the strings from time to time but has no plan to be with his downtrodden people anytime soon. Another ugly facet of our democracy is that whenever our top politicians are confronted with thorny issues they dash to either Dubai or London for parleys. Such ludicrous practices are not only an insult to our motherland but make them more vulnerable to international pressures. By comparison, the Indian politicians are not known to ever take their domestic disputes to foreign countries for settlement nor go in exile to escape the rigours of criminal trials and possible incarcerations. A piece of legislation is urgently required to restrain our politicians from holding parleys in other countries on domestic national issues. -FAROOQ ZAMAN, Lahore, May 19.