<\/p>\n
Senior lawyer and disgruntled PPP leader Sardar Latif Khosa on Sunday joined the PTI.<\/p>\n
The announcement was made at a press conference in Lahore, where Khosa appeared with a PTI flag slung around his shoulders. Speaking to the media, the lawyer \u2014 who has represented PTI chief Imran Khan in several cases \u2014 said he had taken the step with the hope of taking the country towards a \u201cbeautiful\u201d future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world says that people do press conferences to leave [the party] and you are doing a press conference to join,\u201d he laughed, referring to the manner in which several PTI leaders had left the party in the aftermath of the May 9 violence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am doing this deliberately. If rendering services for your mother country makes you a lunatic, then yes I am a lunatic,\u201d he said. He further said that one should not be fearful to speak the truth, adding that life, death, honour, respect and sustenance were all in God\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy 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 \u2014 be it army generals, judges or the bureaucracy, their real owners are the people who pay taxes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He called on institutions to work within their constitutional limits, adding that problems arose when one decided to interfered in matters beyond its mandate.<\/p>\n
Talking about elections, Khosa appreciated Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa for eradicating the speculation around the Feb 8 polls. At the same time, he also said that he wished the CJP had directed for returning officers (ROs) and district returning officers (DROs) to be from the judiciary.<\/p>\n
Khosa also condemned the arrest of PTI\u2019s Sher Afzal Marwat, who was apprehended<\/a> from outside the Lahore High Court on Thursday. \u201cThis is a sanctuary of peace and justice [\u2026] I was ashamed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He said that the Lahore deputy commissioner was a relative of the \u201cchairtaker\u201d Punjab chief minister. He said that Marwat\u2019s detention order said that he had the \u201cpotential to create a law and order situation\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cCan you detain him for 30 days over this? That he has the potential, the capacity to create a law and order situation?\u201d he asked. He said that if such officials were made ROs and DROs, then they would go to any extent for \u201cfavourable\u201d results.<\/p>\n In September, the PPP had suspended<\/a> Khosa\u2019s party membership and also ousted him from its central executive committee (CEC). PPP Secretary General Nayyar Bukhari said the decision was taken after Khosa had failed to reply to a show-cause notice issued to him by the party.<\/p>\n