Latif was promoted to the rank of Squadron Leader and appointed Commanding Officer of No. 4 Squadron IAF. The squadron was equipped with the Hawker Tempest. He led his squadron during the first fly past over during the Delhi Republic Day parade in January 1950. 23 aircraft were part of the flypast in formation of the letters I, A and F. In 1951, he was posted to the Joint Services Wing (JSW) (later National Defence Academy, Pune) at Dehradun. At JSW, there were four squadrons - A, B, C and D. He commanded the 'Charlie' squadron while Major (later General and COAS) K. V. Krishna Rao commanded D squadron.