May 20, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 14, 1429

ISLAMABAD, May 19: Pakistan Muslim League-Q leader Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo quit the party on Monday after joining the PPP-led coalition government as Adviser to the Prime Minister on Science and Technology.

The Ministry of Science and Technology was headed by

PML-N vice-president Tehmina Daultana before she and eight other ministers belonging to the party decided to leave the cabinet over the judges’ issue.

Mr Wattoo’s appointment as an adviser with the status of a federal minister is the first indication that the PPP may have started thinking about working without its 42-day-old cabinet ally, although the PML-N ministers’ resignations are yes to be accepted.

Mr Wattoo had merged his PML (Junejo) into the PML-Q led by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, along with other factions of the party.

Mr Wattoo had met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani during the latter’s visit to Lahore last week. He has also held several meetings with President Musharraf in recent weeks.

After taking over his new office, Mr Wattoo, who had won his seat as an independent candidate, called on Chaudhry Shujaat to tender his resignation from the party which was ‘immediately’ accepted.

Mr Wattoo was speaker of the Punjab assembly when Mr Sharif was chief minister of the province and parted ways with him when he took over as the prime minister. He became chief minister of Punjab with the support of the PPP in 1993 during Benazir Bhutto’s second tenure in power, but was later replaced by Sardar Arif Nakai.