LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreeki-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan said on Friday that the upcoming elections should be held on time, and that the polls would be the most important in the history of the country.

He was speaking to journalists at the Lahore residence of estranged Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former Punjab governor Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa, wherethe chief of the Khosa tribe and his grandsons announced their decision to join the PTI.Mr Khan stressed the need for appointing `neutral umpires` adding that:`The 2013 elections were not free and fair.` He reiterated his demand for the coming elections to be free, fair and transparent.

`This would be the prime duty of the caretaker government.

Responding to a question, hesaid the elections should be held on time. However, he said, there was an issue in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and its outgoing chief minister Pervez Khattak had written a letter to the Election Commission of Pakistandemanding that elections in KP and tribal districts be held either simultaneously or within a gap of a few days, but not beyond that.

`Following the elections, if the KP government is formed with a close margin, it can be destabilised when MPAs from tribal districts join in af ter a few months,` he said.

Sardar Khosa said he had been a staunch supporter of the PML-N during its hard times, and had left the party when it was at its peak. `The PML-N is now a simple N-League,` he commented, referring to the immense influence PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif enjoyed in the party.

Sardar Khosa has earlier won nine elections to the Provincial Assembly, and was governor of the Punjab between August 17, 1999 and October 12,1999. In thelocal government elections of 2015, Sardar Khosa`s group had managed to win in four union councils out of 17 in the DG Khan municipal corporation.

The PTI chairperson welcomed Sardar Khosa to the party, and said that he commanded a lot of respect among the people and in political circles.

He commented on the backlash following Farooq Bandial`s inclusion to the PTI, saying it was an honour for the PTI that the people had expressed their disapproval of Bandial and demanded his expulsion. `The party immediately responded to the situation and ousted Bandial,` he said, while lauding the role which social media had played in ensuring that the right information travelled within minutes. He pointed out that no one had objected when Bandial was in the PML-N.

Looking to prevent a similar round of criticism again, the PTI chief did not let Sardar Khosa`s son Dost Muhammad Khosa stand next to him during the media talk. Dost Khosa, who had earlier served as Punjab chief minister in a stop-gap arrangement, is suspected of being involved in the disappearance of an actress.

Though there were rumours that Dost Khosa had joined the PTI, Mr Khan did not read his name out from the list ofmembers of Sardar Khosa`s family who had joined the party.

Commenting on the judgement in former foreign affairs minister Khawaja Asif`s case, Mr Khan said the current caretaker prime minister had been the chief justice of Pakistan when a judicial commission was formed on the PTI`s complaint against rigging in the 2013 general elections.

He said the decision on those allegations remained incomplete but the PTI had accepted it and `so is the case with the judgement in Khawaja Asif`s case`. The PTI did not rail against the Supreme Court judgement like Nawaz Sharif did, he added.