Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said on Tuesday that state institutions should operate within their limits.
He was speaking during a meeting with at the Punjab House where he held a meeting with party leaders and allies, including Pakhtuhkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai.
In his remarks, Nawaz said he may not have been an ideological person before but now he is 100 per cent ideological.
"Had we respected the sanctity of vote for 70 years, Pakistan would have been in the top 10 countries of the world," said Nawaz.
'Watching CJP's interview, doctrine related articles'
Earlier, Nawaz said he is looking at things like the recent interview of chief justice of Pakistan to a news anchor and a newspaper article detailing the army chief's 'doctrine'.
Interacting with reporters inside the accountability court hearing a corruption case against him and his family, Nawaz said former president and army chief Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf lies about his return.
"He would show his fists and say 'Nawaz and Benazir would never come back to Pakistan'," he said about the former army chief who recently postponed his return to the country to face trial on security grounds.
"I’m here with my daughter facing the courts," he said, adding that people should understand the difference between people like Musharraf and politicians. He hid in a hospital on the pretext of illness, he claimed further.
Moreover, Nawaz claimed that Musharraf established the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) with a specific aim, adding that he fears just as in 2002 elections, NAB is now being used against him.
The former premier also called for an end to all laws made under martial law regimes.
Nawaz claimed that everyone knows he is not the one to take ‘signals’, adding that he has paid a price for democracy and is paying it now too.
"The public’s thumbs and not the umpire’s finger will deliver votes," the three-time premier said, referring to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan's umpire reference during the anti-government protest in 2014.
"Today, decisions are not in my hands but ‘theirs’," he claimed, without identifying 'them'.
Nawaz said the reason for the attacks against him is his standing with the Constitution. He also regretted becoming part of the Memogate case against the PPP government and Husain Haqqani.
The Pakistan Muslim League-N supremo admitted that he has spoken with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on the issue of a caretaker prime minister a couple of times.
"With two months left in the present assembly’s tenure, we don’t want a day or hour’s delay in the general elections," he added.
