World rulers who did **t resign during probes against them
 

https://www.thenews.com.pk/assets/up...3315_print.jpg LAHORE: While Premier Nawaz Sharif’s opponents have repeatedly demanded of him to relinquish the charge during the Panama probe, asserting incumbent rulers opt to resign worldwide on high moral grounds in a bid to facilitate impartial inquiries if allegations of any sort are leveled against them, one can cite various precedents from some of the world’s most accomplished democracies like the United States and Italy where men seated on the thrones had held on to their cozy ******s during all the time period when law was taking its course against them and consequent investigations were being conducted.

But then, Nawaz Sharif’s foes would contend that given the political culture in Pakistan and given the fact that state departments in the country can**t function independently and without fear in presence of a three-time lucky premier having a 35-year-long career where he had allegedly obliged and bribed many a government official by appointing and promoting them, his resignation was imperative.

And then of course, one hears the Sharifs' contemporaries in politics citing examples of his vengeance where state officials like Senior Superintendent of Police, Islamabad, Mohammad Ali Nekokara, were punished for **t bowing or budging to his commands or demands..

Much to the sheer dismay of his political adversaries, Nawaz Sharif's resignation did **t come anyway during the time the Panama case was heard in the Supreme Court for about six months, and even when he and family members are probed by a quasi-judicial body called the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which was formed on Supreme Court orders for a period of 60 days to find lost links to the money trail leading to the formation of Sharif family's shell companies abroad.

The case of President Richard Nixon:

Exclusive research conducted by the "Jang Group and Geo Television Network" shows that in the United States, Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton had remained in power while probes in Watergate scandal and the Monica Lewinsky *** Scam respectively were initiated against them -- with **t many voices seeking their ouster till the completion of investigations in both cases.

In fact, Nixon had accomplished an incredible feat just in **vember 1972, or just a month after the Watergate scam had first surfaced, whereby it was reported that the break-in of the Democratic headquarters at the behest of Nixon was part of a political sabotage campaign undertaken to keep a check on President's political adversaries.

Nixon was re-elected in one of the largest landslides in American political history. He crushed his Democratic opponent, George McGovern, taking more than 60 per cent of the vote and 49 states -- including McGovern's own, South Dakota.

The Watergate scandal had haunted Nixon between **vember 1972 and August 8, 1974, when he had finally decided to step down instead of facing an embarrassing impeachment. It, of course, took a lot of time before Nixon and his loyalists had begun feeling the heat and severity of the burglary and wiretapping accusations against them. The American Supreme Court's intervention had actually proved fatal for Nixon.

(Reference: December 19, 2008 edition of The Telegraph, CNN, Washington Post, The Guardian, Reuters, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Fox TV etc)

"The Telegraph" states: "Two months after the election, two former Nixon aides were convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping. By April 1973, those still surrounding Nixon started to fall, with two top White House officials and the Attorney General forced to resign. A**ther White House staffer, John Dean, was fired - and reportedly told investigators that he had discussed with Nixon covering up Watergate on 35 occasions. By then a Senate inquiry into the incident had opened. In a testimony that was to prove fatal to Nixon's chances of survival, it was told by a former White House diary secretary that the president had recorded all conversations and telephone calls in his ******s since 1971."

The prestigious British newspaper further writes: "The inquiry demanded the tapes, and Nixon at first refused. When eventually the tapes were handed over, one had an 18 and a half minute section missing, which could **t be legitimately explained. By July 1974, the dispute over the tapes reached the Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously that Nixon must hand over recordings of 64 specific conversations, rejecting his claim to have executive privilege. With impeachment proceedings against him having commenced, Nixon resigned on August 8, 1974, telling the US people in a televised address: "I have never been a quitter. To leave ****** before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President, I must put the interests of America first."

The case of President Bill Clinton:

Coming to the case a**ther American President Bill Clinton; history tells us he too had **t resigned and one did **t hear many calls of his resignation during the inquiry against him.

Nawaz Sharif’s opponents would say that one did **t hear many calls for Clinton’s resignation from his opposition benches because they had full faith in the independence of their state departments, including judiciary, and were sure that Clinton could **t influence any government or judicial official interrogating him due to the unparalleled strength of the American system—unlike what the state of affairs has been in countries like Pakistan where evolving and feeble democracies are run by subservient civil servants, who have often been alleged since decades of behaving like personal staffers of powerful politicians at the helm of affairs!!

The Lewinsky scandal took place between 1995 and 1996 and came to light in 1998.

Investigation into this affair had led to charges of perjury and ultimately paved way for Clinton’s impeachment in 1998 by US House of Representatives and his subsequent acquittal on all impeachment charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in a 21-day Senate trial.

On January 26, 1998, an angry President Clinton had declared to an invited media audience at the White House: "I want you to listen to me. I did **t have *** with that woman, Monica Lewinsky. I never told a single person to lie, **t a single time, never."

(Reference: The Guardian’s **vember 18, 1998 edition)

Archival research further shows that Clinton was held in civil contempt of court by Judge Susan Webber Wright for giving misleading testimony in the Paula Jones Case regarding Monica Lewinsky and was also fined $90,000 by the arbiter.

His license to practice Law was suspended in Arkansas for five years; shortly thereafter, he was disbarred from presenting cases in front of the US Supreme Court.

This scandal first broke on January 17, 1998, and on January 29, 1998, President Clinton had stunningly posted his highest ever opinion poll rating.

Gallup for CNN had found 67 per cent of Americans approving of the President (up five per cent from his previous best); just 28 per cent disapproved. Ms Lewinsky was only believed by 13 per cent of Americans. Unexplainable, but facts are facts!

In September 1998, according to a report prepared and released by independent counsel, Kenneth Starr, there were 11 possible grounds for President’s impeachment. The House voted to make the 445-page report public.

On October 8, 1998, the US House of Representatives voted for impeachment proceedings to begin against Clinton.

On December 17, 1998, a last-minute stay of execution was offered to President Clinton as the Congress vote was postponed until the latest Gulf crisis was resolved and US military action against Iraq ended.

On December 19, 1998, Clinton was impeached as the Republican-controlled House had approved two of the four proposed articles of impeachment by narrow partisan majorities: 228-206 and 221-212. And Clinton was hence sent for trial in the Senate.

Clinton resisted calls to resign, pledging to fight to remain in the White House until "the last hour of the last day of my term."

Interestingly, on December 21, 1998, in the wake of his impeachment, President Clinton's approval level with the voters had soared 10 points to a personal all-time high of 73 per cent in a Gallup poll.

Some 68 per cent Americans believed the Senate should **t convict Clinton in the pending impeachment trial, while support for resignation plunged to 30 per cent. Other polls confirmed the trend.

On January 7, 1999, the US Senate formally began the impeachment trial of President Clinton on two charges of perjury and obstruction of justice and on January 8, 1999, the Republican and Democratic senators agreed to postpone the issue of whether to call witnesses until later in the month, enabling the Senate trial of President Clinton to commence.

President Clinton was consequently acquitted of all charges and remained in ******. There were attempts to censure him by the House of Representatives, but those attempts had failed.

Aftermath and effect on 2000 US Presidential election:

The scandal arguably affected the 2000 US Presidential election. Democratic Party candidate and sitting vice president Al-Gore had said that Clinton's scandal had been "a drag" that deflated the enthusiasm of their party's base, and had the effect of reducing Democratic votes.



The case of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi:

Berlusconi had served as Italian Premier four times from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011.

While he was the Italian Prime Minister for nine years in total, making him one of the longest-serving Prime Ministers of Italy, he was alleged in many scams but somehow, he kept winning the confidence of his countrymen and kept bouncing back into power.

Berlusconi was involved in numerous trials for corruption, fraud and *** offences, He was often found guilty in lower courts but used loopholes in Italy's legal system to evade incarceration.

Many critics of Berlusconi accused him of using his power primarily to protect his own business ventures, allegations similar to what Nawaz Sharif is facing today!

According to the "BBC News," much of Berlusconi's political career ran in tandem with a litany of legal battles. Even as Prime Minister, he had frequently complained of being victimized by Milan city’s legal authorities.

In 2009, he estimated that from 1994 to 2006, **t fewer than 789 prosecutors and magistrates took an interest in his cases.

While police visited Berlusconi 577 times, he attended 2,500 court hearings in 106 trials and paid over 174 million Euros in lawyers' bills. But despite all sorts of charges against him, he had always refused to resign as Prime Minister.

He denied embezzlement, tax fraud and false accounting, and attempting to bribe a judge. And on numerous occasions he was acquitted, had convictions overturned or watched them expire under a statute of limitations.

In October 2009, he had faced demands for his resignation after the country’s highest court had thrown out a law which had granted him immunity from prosecution.

The October 7, 2009 edition of "The Telegraph" had reported: "The ruling left the 73-old billionaire Italian Premier facing two criminal trials and a corruption investigation which had been frozen when he introduced the law in one of the first acts after re-election last year. The Italian Constitutional Court’s decision, which came after two days of deliberations, immediately increased pressure on Berlusconi to resign and hold an early election, and followed months of scandals over his private life, including allegations he slept with a high-class prostitute and surrounded himself with nubile showgirls and actresses. One of the trials that will be reactivated centres around allegations that he paid his British former tax lawyer, David Mills, £430,000 to give false evidence in court during two trials in the 1990s."

The British media outlet had maintained: "But Mr Berlusconi condemned the ruling by the court as politically motivated and insisted he would battle on and see out his whole term. Speaking outside his residence in Rome, he said: "**thing will happen, we will go forward. The trials they will hurl at me in Milan are real farces. I will take time out from taking care of government to go there and show them to be liars."

He was eventually convicted of tax fraud in 2013 and ejected from the Italian Senate. Because of his age, a four-year jail term became a year of community service at a care home near Milan. A**ther conviction in 2015 and his political career was finally over.

In 2016, the "BBC" had stated: "Few Italians have wielded more influence and attracted more **toriety than Silvio Berlusconi, four-time prime minister and billionaire businessman. For years he successfully brushed off *** scandals and allegations of corruption but it was the effects of Italy's burgeoning euro zone debt crisis in 2011 that finally spelt an end to his time at the top table of politics."

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