Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak has revived a purported pledge by Pakatan Harapan to abolish ridesharing services such as Grab.

This was despite Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad having denied making such a promise before the 14th general election.

"As I mentioned last week, among the main reasons taxi drivers rejected and badmouthed BN which had helped them was due to the false promise spread among taxi drivers before GE14 that Harapan would ban Uber and Grab if they came to power.

"Apart from the false promise, there was also claims that my wife supposedly owns Grab, which added to their hatred.

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Najib appeared to be referring to an incident this morning where some taxi drivers walked out of a dialogue with Mahathir after the prime minister refused to ban Grab.

In the run-up to GE14, Najib claimed that Mahathir wanted to outlaw ridesharing services and criticised him for it.

On the same day, however, Mahathir denied making such a pledge, saying that he had instead called for a review to ensure that the rights of both ridesharing services and taxi drivers are protected.

The alleged promise of the abolishment of ridesharing services first emerged after The Star Online reported Mahathir as saying so.

The article had since been removed.

Najib said the reaction from the taxi drivers in Langkawi today was likely due to the believing of informal promises from Harapan.

He said many such informal promises were made, including by the Johor Bersatu official Facebook page, which among others promised that petrol would be stabilised at RM1.50 per litre.

"There are many Malaysians who will not compare these 'informal' promises that are widely circulated and believed with what is in the actual written manifesto or in the daily news articles," he said.