Former PPP leader Latif Khosa joined the PTI on Sunday, almost three months after the former Sindh ruling party suspended his party membership.
“I have taken this step to start the journey of happiness and to lead the nation towards a beautiful day,” Khosa, who was seen with a PTI flag slung around his neck told reporters in Lahore.
“Some say that people are leaving [PTI] by addressing press conferences and you are doing a press conference to join the party. I am doing this on my own. If rendering services for your mother country makes you a lunatic, then yes I am a lunatic.”
In a video shared by the PTI on X, a party member welcomed Latif to the party. The development comes as the country gears up for the February 8 general elections.
On September 22, the PPP suspended the party membership of Khosaand and also ousted him from its central executive committee after he failed to reply to the show-cause notice issued to him by the party last week.
The decision was taken by PPP Secretary General Nayyar Bukhari. It was issued a show-cause notice for “defending/pleading and representing [the] head of another political party without prior approval of [party] leadership”.
The show cause notice did not mention anyone by name, but the development had come after ex-PM Imran Khan called on Khosa. In a fiery speech in Islamabad, Khosa criticised how Khan had allegedly been removed from office on the orders of a low-level US officer. He had also criticised how the PTI chief was being implicated in “frivolous cases”.
Khosa has been representing the PTI chief in several cases registered against him.
He added that one should not be fearful to speak the truth, adding that life, death, honour, respect and sustenance were all in God’s hands.
“Why should anyone be scared? These are our institutions. This is our army. Their limits are defined within the Constitution. They are paid through the taxes given by the Pakistani people — be it army generals, judges or the bureaucracy. Their real owners are the people who pay taxes. It was their duty to provide justice, secure borders, and assist the government in relief activities,” he said.
“Sadly, Pakistan has become a land where the Constitution is not followed,” he told reporters in Lahore.
Khosa praised Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa for his efforts to ensure elections are held on time. He added that the CJP should also have ordered that the returning officers be appointed from the judiciary, instead of the Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision to appoint them from the bureaucracy.
He wondered the reasons for arresting PTI Senior Vice President Sher Afzal Marwat from outside the Lahore High Court. “Can’t we even protect our guest,” Khosa said and added that he was ashamed over the incident.
The former PPP leader described Mohsin Naqvi as “chairtaker” instead of the caretaker chief minister.
“Nation is waiting for the election day. Let them elect their leader,” he said, “I render my services to PTI.”
PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari in an interview with Aaj News said that the PTI has only lawyer candidates in the wake of the May 9 events, which saw many leaders being arrested and parting ways with the party.
When asked about the lawyers who served in the PPP in the past, Zardari said that any individual in politics was from the “PPP nursery”—which means that they have been groomed by the party.
