Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Thursday said that while general elections were a “constitutional necessity”, it was incumbent upon the political leadership to make them “meaningful”.

The estranged PML-N leader, who had developed differences with the party leadership over the last year, made the remarks while speaking to the media in Rawalpindi.

In February last year, he had resigned as the party’s senior vice president in an effort to give Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz an “open field”.

During today’s media talk, Abbasi also said he had decided against contesting the February 8 polls but had not quit politics, terming the elections “useless”.

“Elections are a constitutional necessity — it is not a choice whether to hold elections or not — but it is the political leadership’s duty to make the elections meaningful and a way to solve the country’s problems,” he said.

“The political leadership has failed in this action,” the ex-premier said.

He said that the only way to move forward was for the country’s political, military and judicial leadership to come together and determine the path ahead.

He stressed that politicians “should realise that the country can never make progress if its elections become controversial”.

The politician highlighted that it was the responsibility of Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa and caretaker premier Anwaarul Haq Kakar to ensure that the upcoming elections were “non-controversial”.

“With each passing day, I become more satisfied that I made the right decision. Such an election, which does not give the country anything other than incitement and flaws; at least I did not play a part in this misdeed,” he said.

Criticising bodies such as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE), he said it was a “misfortune” that they had become the “most corrupt institutions”.

Alleging that these institutions were now solely used to “break and distort polls”, Abbasi said the entities themselves were the ones “contesting elections”.

“We have stolen every election since 1947. A country where the public’s opinion is not respected can never make progress,” he said, adding that if the politics of “garnering votes through pressure” was not rejected, the country could not move forward.

When asked about reports of him and other leaders — including Mustafa Khokhar and Miftah Ismail — forming a new party, Abbasi said, “A [political] party is not formed in such an environment.”

In an apparent reference to the PML-N, the PTI and the PPP, he said, “The three major political parties in Pakistan today have failed.”

He further said he would decide on his political future after the February 8 polls.

When asked if the perpetrators behind the violence in the country on May 9 — when riots broke out following the arrest of PTI founder Imran Khan — should be provided with a level playing field, Abbasi said that action should have been taken against the individuals by collecting evidence and following the legal process.