{"id":52190,"date":"2024-01-25T09:46:06","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T09:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/elections-constitutional-necessity-but-leaders-should-make-them-meaningful-shahid-khaqan\/"},"modified":"2024-01-25T09:46:06","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T09:46:06","slug":"elections-constitutional-necessity-but-leaders-should-make-them-meaningful-shahid-khaqan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/elections-constitutional-necessity-but-leaders-should-make-them-meaningful-shahid-khaqan\/","title":{"rendered":"Elections \u2018constitutional necessity\u2019 but leaders should make them \u2018meaningful\u2019: Shahid Khaqan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Thursday said that while general elections were a \u201cconstitutional necessity\u201d, it was incumbent upon the political leadership to make them \u201cmeaningful\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>In February last year, he had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1734750\">resigned<\/a> as the party\u2019s senior vice president in an effort to give Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz an \u201copen field\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>During today\u2019s media talk, Abbasi also said he had decided against contesting the February 8 polls but had not quit politics, terming the elections \u201cuseless\u201d.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1779215\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cElections are a constitutional necessity \u2014 it is not a choice whether to hold elections or not \u2014 but it is the political leadership\u2019s duty to make the elections meaningful and a way to solve the country\u2019s problems,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe political leadership has failed in this action,\u201d the ex-premier said.<\/p>\n<p>He said that the only way to move forward was for the country\u2019s political, military and judicial leadership to come together and determine the path ahead.<\/p>\n<p>He stressed that politicians \u201cshould realise that the country can never make progress if its elections become controversial\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>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 \u201cnon-controversial\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Criticising bodies such as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE), he said it was a \u201cmisfortune\u201d that they had become the \u201cmost corrupt institutions\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Alleging that these institutions were now solely used to \u201cbreak and distort polls\u201d, Abbasi said the entities themselves were the ones \u201ccontesting elections\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have stolen every election since 1947. A country where the public\u2019s opinion is not respected can never make progress,\u201d he said, adding that if the politics of \u201cgarnering votes through pressure\u201d was not rejected, the country could not move forward.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1800190\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>When asked about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1783020\">reports<\/a> of him and other leaders  \u2014 including Mustafa Khokhar and Miftah Ismail \u2014 forming a new party, Abbasi said, \u201cA [political] party is not formed in such an environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an apparent reference to the PML-N, the PTI and the PPP, he said, \u201cThe three major political parties in Pakistan today have failed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He further said he would decide on his political future after the February 8 polls.<\/p>\n<p>When asked if the perpetrators behind the violence in the country on May 9 \u2014 when riots broke out following the arrest of PTI founder Imran Khan \u2014 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.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Thursday said that while general elections were a \u201cconstitutional necessity\u201d, it was incumbent upon the political leadership to make them \u201cmeaningful\u201d. 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/01\/25141622cb61b4a.png?r=142101","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}