LAHORE (MNN); Former Punjab chief minister Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo passed away in Lahore on Tuesday after a prolonged political career spanning several decades. He was 86.
Wattoo was a seasoned politician who remained associated with multiple political parties over the years and played a significant role in Punjab’s politics. He was most recently affiliated with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and had also served as federal minister for Kashmir affairs during the PPP-led coalition government from 2008 to 2013.
Hailing from Deepalpur in Okara district, Wattoo began his political journey in local government and was first elected chairman of the Okara district council in 1983. Two years later, he entered provincial politics as a member of the Punjab Assembly and was elected speaker of the house.
He retained his seat as an independent in the 1988 elections before joining the Nawaz Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League, which was then part of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI). He was again elected speaker of the Punjab Assembly.
In the 1993 elections, Wattoo won both National and Provincial Assembly seats on the IJI platform but chose to remain in provincial politics, becoming speaker for the third consecutive term. Later that year, with the support of the PPP, he succeeded in toppling the PML-N government of Chief Minister Ghulam Haider Wyne through a vote of no-confidence and assumed office as Punjab chief minister.
Despite having limited numerical strength in the Punjab Assembly, Wattoo became chief minister as part of a political arrangement in which the PPP accepted him in exchange for PML-Junejo’s support at the federal level. However, his alliance with the PPP ended in 1995, leading Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to appoint Arif Nakai as the new chief minister.
The same year, Wattoo formed Pakistan Muslim League–Jinnah after parting ways with his cousin Hamid Nasir Chattha. In 1996, he was elected to the National Assembly from the PML-Jinnah platform but later faced corruption cases, resulting in a conviction and imprisonment. Due to health issues, he was shifted to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, where he remained under custody for more than two years before being acquitted.
Following his acquittal, Wattoo joined PML-Quaid during the era of former president Pervez Musharraf and merged his party into PML-Q on Musharraf’s advice.
In the 2008 general elections, Wattoo was elected as an independent from two National Assembly constituencies in Okara and later joined the PPP. He retained one seat, while his son Khurram Jehangir won the other in a by-election on a PPP ticket. Wattoo was later appointed PPP’s central Punjab president in 2012.
Known for his political adaptability, Wattoo joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in 2018 after contesting the general election as an independent in violation of PPP discipline. He rejoined the PPP last year.
