Former PPP leader Senator Babar Awan on Friday formally announced that he is joining the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

"I part ways with the PPP after a long-standing membership of 21 years," Awan said during an iftar party held at his residence where PTI leadership were the main guests, according to DawnNews.

"I left my ministry in pursuit of justice. Even leaving the Senate to join PTI was a challenge," said the former federal law minister, who submitted his resignation to Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani on Thursday.

"If my agenda held firm then I would have remained in the Senate till 2018," Awan noted.

"It is now time for Pakistanis to gather together and seek justice and demand their rights," he added. "Change won't come sitting at home."

"People told me Imran Khan is an honest man with integrity. Pakistanis need to help PTI win the required two-thirds majority in the parliament." Awan asserted.

"The next prime minister will be none other than Imran Khan."

PTI Chairman Imran Khan welcomed Awan to the party and took note of how the political climate is changing across the country. "The status quo is withering away," he said at the iftar dinner.

"Countries which have progressed have done so because their leaders strengthened their institutions," the PTI chief said. "Our institutions were destroyed to facilitate corruption and money laundering," he claimed.

Highlighting the Panama Papers case proceedings, Khan claimed, "The most important case in the country's history is currently in the Supreme Court, and the court has declared all institutions as obsolete."

Lauding Awan's decision to swap allegiances, the cricketer-turned-politician said, "Standing up to a mafia is no easy task. Time will tell that Babar Awan made the right decision."

Responding to a question regarding Khan's earlier decision to invite Awami Muslim League Chief Shaikh Rashid to join the PTI Khan said, "I leave it up to Shaikh Rashid to decide whether he wants to join Tehreek-i-Insaaf."

PPP defections

The PPP has been losing members to PTI in recent weeks as former stalwarts such as former federal ministers Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Nazar Muhammad Gondal, Imtiaz Safdar Warraich and Nawabzada Ghazanfar Gul have already bid adieu to their former parties.

Groupings within the party and local political issues are said to be the reasons behind the desertions.

Warraich, who served as minister of state for communication in the PPP government during 2008-13, was dejected when he was removed from the post of the president of the party’s central Punjab chapter for “failing to deliver”.

Since then, there were reports that he is quitting the PPP to join the PTI.

His grievances allegedly deepened when Qamar Zaman Kaira from the rival party group was nominated as the central Punjab chapter chief.

Firdous Ashiq Awan also had complaints against Kaira when the PPP was in power as she had accused him of interfering in her ministry (of information and broadcasting).

She, however, alleged that the party leadership has sacrificed the “political interests of Punjab to save the political interests of Sindh”, creating panic among PPP leaders in Punjab.

The PPP has also failed to play the role of “real opposition” in accordance with the wishes of the masses “making the party irrelevant” in the province, she said earlier.

Gondal is said to be annoyed with the PPP for not lending him support in the Rs40 billion EOBI corruption case against his brother Zafar Gondal.

Gul was not happy at the PPP’s reconciliation with the PML-Q as the latter’s leaders Chaudhry Shujaat and Pervaiz Elahi are arch-rivals of the Nawabzadas in Gujrat district politics.