{"id":7072,"date":"2025-12-16T18:44:36","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T13:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/?p=7072"},"modified":"2025-12-16T18:45:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T13:45:44","slug":"former-punjab-cm-mian-manzoor-wattoo-passes-away-after-long-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/2025\/12\/16\/former-punjab-cm-mian-manzoor-wattoo-passes-away-after-long-illness","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Punjab CM Mian Manzoor Wattoo passes away"},"content":{"rendered":"

Okara :<\/strong> Mian Manzoor Wattoo<\/strong>, the former Chief Minister of Punjab and senior leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)<\/strong>, passed away on Tuesday after a prolonged illness, according to family sources. The timing and venue for his funeral prayers will be announced later.<\/p>\n

Born on August 14, 1939<\/strong>, Wattoo began his political journey in 1983<\/strong> when he was elected chairman of the Okara District Council<\/strong>. Just two years later, he entered the Punjab Assembly<\/strong> and was appointed its speaker, marking the beginning of his prominent political career.<\/p>\n

In 1988<\/strong>, Wattoo returned to the Punjab Assembly as an independent legislator before joining Nawaz Sharif’s<\/strong> Pakistan Muslim League<\/strong> (PML), which was part of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI)<\/strong>, and was once again elected speaker.<\/p>\n

During the 1993<\/strong> elections, Wattoo won seats in both the National Assembly<\/strong> and Punjab Assembly<\/strong> on the IJI ticket but chose to serve in the provincial legislature, where he was elected speaker for a third consecutive term.<\/p>\n

Later that year, Wattoo led a successful no-confidence motion<\/strong> that ousted Ghulam Haider Wyne\u2019s<\/strong> PML-N<\/strong> government in Punjab. With backing from the PPP, Wattoo became the Chief Minister of Punjab<\/strong>, despite having the support of only a small group of dissenting lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Wattoo\u2019s association with the PPP ended in 1995<\/strong>, when Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto<\/strong> appointed Arif Nakai<\/strong> as the new chief minister of Punjab. Wattoo then formed the Pakistan Muslim League-Jinnah (PML-Jinnah)<\/strong> after differences with his cousin Hamid Nasir Chattha<\/strong>, who sought leadership of the PML-Junejo<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In 1996<\/strong>, Wattoo won a National Assembly seat<\/strong> under the PML-Jinnah banner but later faced corruption allegations<\/strong> that led to a brief imprisonment. After being cleared, he joined Pakistan Muslim League\u2013Quaid (PML-Q)<\/strong> during General Pervez Musharraf\u2019s<\/strong> era. Known for his close relationship with Musharraf, Wattoo merged his PML-Jinnah faction into PML-Q on the former president\u2019s advice.<\/p>\n

Following the 2008<\/strong> general elections, Wattoo contested as an independent candidate and won two National Assembly seats<\/strong> in Okara<\/strong>. He later rejoined the PPP, retaining one seat while his son, Khurram Jehangir<\/strong>, secured the other in a by-election on a PPP ticket.<\/p>\n

In October 2012<\/strong>, he was appointed PPP Central Punjab President<\/strong>. Wattoo also served as the Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs<\/strong> during the PPP-led government from 2008 to 2013<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okara : Mian Manzoor Wattoo, the former Chief Minister of Punjab and senior leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), passed away on Tuesday after a prolonged illness, according to family sources. The timing and venue for his funeral prayers will be announced later. Born on August 14, 1939, Wattoo began his political journey in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":7073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[160,2294],"class_list":["post-7072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","tag-headline","tag-youdigital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7072"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7076,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7072\/revisions\/7076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}