On 22 March 2008, after weeks of consideration, the elite members of the
Central Executive Committee accepted the nomination of Gillani over populist
Ameen Faheem for the post of prime minister. Meanwhile, the Pakistan Peoples Party completed consultations and negotiations with the other parties to form a coalition alliance and the alliance endorsed the nomination. The formal announcement of the name of prime minister was expected to be made that night. On 22 March at 9:38 pm
Islamabad, (16:38 GMT), Gillani was officially announced by the peoples party as its candidate for the premiership of the country. Many analysts said that they would not be surprised if Zardari succeeded Gillani after a few months. It was reported on 24 March 2008, that Zardari said he was not interested in the job of prime minister and that Gillani would serve until 2013 in the position. Speculation that Zardari might be gunning for the premiership grew stronger when he picked the less popular Gillani over
Ameen Faheem, a much powerful member of the central executive committee.
Fahmida Mirza, the newly elected Speaker of the Assembly, insisted there was no plan to replace Gillani. She added, however, that if Gillani did not do a good job, all options were open. On 24 March 2008, Gillani was elected Prime Minister by Parliament, defeating his rival,
Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi of the PML-Q, by a score of 264 to 42. He was sworn in by Musharraf on the next day. On 29 March, he won a unanimous vote of confidence in Parliament. On the same day, following the
vote of confidence, Gillani announced his programme for the first 100 days of his administration. Some of the points he announced were: • Frontier Crimes Regulations and Industrial Relations Order repealed. • A "
truth and reconciliation commission" proposed. • PM House budget cut by 40 percent. • Special counters at airports for parliamentarians to be removed. • No money to be spent on the renovation of government buildings and residences. • A
freedom of information law to be framed, while
PEMRA will be made a subsidiary of the information ministry. • Talks to be initiated with extremists who lay down arms and 'adopt the path of peace'. • A new package for tribal areas promised. • Employment commission to be set up. •
Madressah authority to implement a uniform education curriculum. • One million housing units to be built annually for low-income groups. • Irrigation channels to be bricklined. • Appointed Prof. Ghulam Hussain Saleem and Wazir Ibadat adviser to the prime minister for Gilgit Baltistan Affairs. • A lifting of the bans on elected
labour and
students' unions.
Consolidation of power The first part of Gillani's Cabinet was sworn in on 31 March. Of the 24 ministers sworn in on this occasion, 11 were members of the Pakistan Peoples Party, nine were members of the
Pakistan Muslim League (PML), two were members of the
Awami National Party, one was from
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, and one came from the
Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Other appointments were expected to follow. Gillani consolidated his powers and successfully lessening the role of president
Pervez Musharraf who found it difficult to counter Gilani's
collective leadership with full force. Musharraf failed to gather the support in the country, and Gillani's position was fairly secure; however he could not have remove Musharraf alone. Gillani secretly but more effectively persuaded his party's leadership to bring about an impeachment motion against President Pervez Musharraf. According to
The News International, Gillani reportedly told at the meeting of the central committee that "they all should "
swim and sink" with the political forces of PML in the larger interests of democracy. On 13 May 2008, the PML (N) ministers resigned from Gillani's government due to a disagreement related to the reinstatement of judges whom Musharraf removed from office in 2007. Zardari, hoping to preserve the coalition, told Gillani to reject the resignations. At the close of 2008, Pakistan's
The Financial Daily conducted a public poll on its website; respondents entered the names of their favourite personalities for the year, and Gillani was named among the top 50. Musharraf's foreign trips were cancelled, and Gilani decided to paid a
state visit to China instead of Musharraf, to attend the
ceremony of
2008 Beijing Olympics. A public
movement led by the
Peoples Party-
Muslim league nexus, Musharraf dramatically resigned from the presidency after delivering an hour long farewell speech on 18 August 2008. Reacting upon Musharraf's removal, Gillani publicly called for national celebration, and marked Musharraf's resignation as "
historic day." In 2010, Gillani went on to attend the
Nuclear Security Summit held in Washington, D.C., where he issued a statement saying Pakistan would like to act as a provider and "participate in any non-discriminatory nuclear fuel cycle assurance mechanism. His government tightened the nuclear safety programme, and expanded the role of
Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA). His government announced the approval the safeguards agreements of the two commercial civil nuclear power plants, and inaugurated the
CHASNUPP-III nuclear power plant in Chasma. In 2012, Gillani gave approval of establishing two civilian nuclear power plant in Karachi to meet the future energy needs of financial and economical development. After his party secured the
plurality in the
1993 general elections, Gillani was elevated as the
15th Speaker of the
National Assembly by the Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, a post he held until 16 February 1997. on accusations and charges of corruption, and released on 7 October 2006. As part of the federal government's energy conservation plan, Gillani had ordered that air-conditioners of the Prime Minister House and Prime Minister's Secretariat could not be switched on before 11 am. According to the government sources, Gillani's government has levelled up the nuclear energy programme up ~ 78% for two combined 664 MW commercial nuclear plants,
C-3 and
C-4 at
Chashma Nuclear Power Complex to be completed at their record time. The ground work on
Karachi Nuclear Power Complex was also laid in 2012 as part of his nuclear policy. The offices of WAPDA corporations were destroyed, a fashion mall was looted while a completely gutted a three carriages of the train. After learning the news, Gillani summoned a national energy conference in Islamabad to take notice of power crisis. Gillani ordered his staff to double its effort to harness the electricity by any means of force after chairing the conference.
Economy , indicating the country's return to "Era of Stagflation" (a virtual period faced by Pakistan in the 1990s). In his first days of government, Gillani attempted to continue the
privatisation of
Shaukat Aziz, but the programme was abruptly terminated after the
2008 financial crisis. Gillani accepted the resignation of two
Finance ministers and surprisingly appointed the former minister privatisation and investment in the government of
Shaukat Aziz, Dr.
Abdul Hafeez Shaikh as a new Finance Minister. Early attempts were to discontinue the nationalisation programme by Gillani's government and instead replacing it with a new system based on state capitalism. The state-owned corporations were set off to privatisation menu and his government approved a new menu of privatisation based on public private partnership (PPP) with transfer of management control and 26% shares of 21 state owned enterprises (SOEs). In the parliament, Gillani pointed out that the fiscal deficit had come down from 9.4% to 7.6% and inflation that had reached 25% had been reduced to 9.7% during December 2011. In a policy statement, Gillani stated that the "country's GDP growth rate will be 4% basically due to the enhanced agricultural production and the web of taxation has been increased". Major worker's strike were initiated by the central labour unions, and after receiving much criticism, his government halted the privatisation programme of energy sector, and nationalised the remaining power sector industries due to public pressure. According to the calculation performed by
Transparency International (TI), Pakistan has lost an unbelievably high amount, more than Rs 8,500 billion (Rs 8.5 trillion or US$94 billion), in corruption, tax evasion and bad governance during the last four years of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani's tenure. An adviser of TI acknowledged that "Pakistan does not need even a single penny from the outside world if it effectively checks the menace of corruption and ensures good governance". On 1 June 2012, prime minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani claimed that the government was committed to resolving the energy crisis and achieving energy security for the country, adding that Pakistan's power sector was presently facing a wide demand-supply gap, which had necessitated the enhancement of generation capacity as well as related infrastructure. In spite of many attempts to produce effective outcomes, the dramatic high rise in
suicide, corruption, national security, high unemployment, and without the sustainable economic policies along with compilation of other factors, the country's economy re-entered in the "
era of stagflation" (a virtual period that country had seen in 1990s earlier). The new strict and tight monetary policy could not tame the soaring inflation, it did stagnate the economic growth. when unidentified gunmen fired shots at his motorcade near the garrison city of
Rawalpindi, officials said. The shooting occurred shortly after Gillani was returning from an official visit to the eastern city of Lahore. His motorcade was going to Islamabad from the high-security Chaklala military airbase in
Rawalpindi. A spokesman for the Prime Minister's House said Gillani and members of his staff had escaped unhurt and were safe. He said police had been put on high alert and an investigation launched into the incident. The unidentified assailants fired at Gillani's motorcade on a highway. At least two shots hit the Prime Minister's bulletproof vehicle, TV channels quoted officials as saying. State-run PTV beamed footage of the damage caused by the bullets to the window of the driver's door of the vehicle. Reports said the incident occurred at a spot where former premier and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif's motorcade was fired at on 27 December last year, shortly before Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chairperson Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide bombing in Rawalpindi. According to Gillani's press secretary,
Zahid Bashir, a car carrying Gillani was hit by 10 bullets in an attack near
Islamabad on 3 September 2008; Bashir said that Gillani was unharmed. The Pakistan-based
Taliban group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Cultural policies and media reforms Upon coming to power, Gillani emphasised his
media policy by noting to the fact that "a free and robust media is the main pillar of the Pakistan Government's media policy." Gillani pushed forward a proposal which amended the "Draconian" laws in past to support media freedom in the country. Gillani emphasised the role of Pakistan's media and encouraged the film, drama, and national performing art industry to promote
national spirit in the country. In 2011
state of the union address at the
Parliament, Gilani spoke highly of culture, stating the historical cultural facts and values of cultural legacy of the country. His state of the union address came in response to American
secret raid that
killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011. Gillani also participated and celebrated the 60th anniversary of the
bilateral relations between Pakistan and China. During the state visit of
Wen Jiabao in 2010, Gillani and Wen proceeded to sign the cultural relations agreements after inaugurating the
Pakistan-China Friendship Centre, a centre of excellence of promoting the cultural relations of China and Pakistan. In 2012, Gilani lastly paid a state visit to the United Kingdom and met with
British counterpart David Cameron which opened a new chapter in friendship when both the countries decided to transform their bilateral relationship into an "Enhanced Strategic Partnership", covering trade and commerce, economic development, defence and security, culture, education and health. At the press conference with the British counterpart, Gillani termed the
Pakistan-UK relationship as unique, warm and cordial and said it was based on shared values, history, culture and strong people-to-people contact. Since 2008, his government and the
Parliament has carried out major constitutional amendments intended to enhance and strengthen the parliamentary democracy in the country. In April 2010, the Parliament unanimously passed the
XVIII Amendment which removed the presidential powers, limiting the role of presidency in the politics, and turned the political system of Pakistan from a semi-presidential to a parliamentary republic.
Intervention in Afghanistan war Immediately after holding the office, a multi-pronged strategy for tribal areas and the war in Afghanistan was approved by Gilani after reviewing the progress on the
war on terror and the law and order situation in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Prime Minister Gilani's upcoming and then-newly appointed principal military adviser,
Chairman Joint Chiefs General
Tariq Majid, presented and formalised a plan and strategy to tackle the insurgency with full military force. Terming as "tri-services framework", the chairman joint chiefs' meeting with the Prime minister, emphasised the role of
inter-services to tackle the insurgency with full force, and "joint
army-navy-air force efforts that are synergized within a framework of jointness and inter-operability to meet present and future challenges". A final unified operation was commenced in 2009 under codename,
Rah-e-Nijat, which brought the areas inflicted of terrorism back in the government control. In 2012, Gilani attempted to end the violence and bloodshed in Afghanistan after going to
Qatar to meet the top
Taliban leadership. Subsequently, Gilani discuss the representatives of Taliban and
Qatari government to established an office there. Gillani also secured his place at the negotiations on Afghanistan's future. The comments brought hostility between two countries, though Gilani reconciled the matter with the British counterpart. In 2011, British Prime Minister
David Cameron visited Pakistan and called for "fresh start" in relations with Pakistan as he offered £650m in aid and better security co-operation. In May 2012, Gilani paid back the trip to United Kingdom and held frank discussion with British counterpart to boost military and strategic ties and to increase bilateral trade, economic growth and development, cultural co-operation, security and education. At the end of trip, Cameron and Gillani launched a Trade and Investment Framework to set out the steps both governments will take to promote investment, support business and achieve the target of increasing bilateral trade to $2.5 billion by 2015. In 2012, he notably called for "Asian Unity" during the attending session of the
Boao Forum for Asia in China. Gilani backed the
reform and opening up and defended a new transit trade agreement with Afghanistan and declaration of most-favoured nation status for India. Gilani called for the united regional co-operation for building the gas pipelines and communication as factors that, in his view, alters the regional situation radically. In May 2011, Gillani paid a three-day
state visit to France to hold discussion on security co-operation and economic partnership. Gallani met with
Nicolas Sarkozy and signed agreement on co-operation on energy, telecommunication, infrastructure development, banking, environment, waste management and defence. On 22 December 2011, Gillani told an audience at the National Gallery that conspirators were plotting to bring down his government. In his first year of Premiership, he tried to resolve diplomatic relations with India, after the
2008 Mumbai terror attack perpetrated by Pakistan based terrorist outfit
Lashkar-e-Taiba nearly pushed the two countries to the war-like situation; Gillani promised to his counterpart to bring and punish perpetrators of this heinous attack to justice. In 2011, Indian Prime minister
Manmohan Singh described Gillani as "Man of Peace".
United States and Russia in
Washington, D.C., 2010 Attempts were made to enhance diplomatic relations with the United States, however as the time passed, Gillani's relations with the United States became somewhat troubled, although United States maintained farewell relations with him. On multiple occasions, he countered the US pressure and backed the military efforts to curbed down the militancy in the region. In 2011, the relations with United States suffered a major set back and resentment when the United States unilaterally conducted a
secret offence (see:
Neptune Spear) in
Abbottabad, which resulted in successful execution of
Usama Bin Laden. Immediately after learning the news, Gillani and President Zardari chaired a high-level meeting with the senior
military leadership in Islamabad. Gillani reportedly announced that: "We will not allow our soil to be used against any other country for terrorism and therefore, I think it's a great victory, it's a success and I congratulate the success of this operation." Later Gilani blamed the world for their failure to capture bin Laden. The relationship between Pakistan and the United States fell to a new low following the
Salala Incident, with his government and the elite Pakistani military establishment reassessing their diplomatic, political, military and intelligence relationship with the United States. All major
NATO supply lines were immediately closed leaving the blockaded supply trucks vulnerable to attacks. On 26 November 2011, Gillani's government ordered the US to shut down and vacate the
PAF Base Shamsi in the southwestern Balochistan province within a deadline of 15 days. On 10 December, the troops from the
Frontier Corps took full control of the air force base as scheduled, and by 11 December all remaining American staff were evacuated. Prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani informed the cabinet that Pakistan was at a critical juncture in its relationship with the US and NATO and it was time to make some important decisions."Decisions regarding ties with the US and NATO will be made in the national interest." In December 2011, Gillani reportedly told the BBC interviewer that "his country does not trust the United States, and the feeling is mutual". in
Dushanbe, Tajikistan; 2010 The
relations with Russia were pushed to level of intensity of bilateral relations, which he termed it as "
New Momentum". In 2011, Gillani and Russian Prime
Vladimir Putin held a frank discussion in a cordial atmosphere on 10th Heads of Government meeting of the
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Gilani successfully convinced Russia finance and invest in the large energy projects including Central Asia-South Asia 1000 (
CASA-1000) to allow the international transition of the power generation from Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan. Russia has provided US$500 million for the CASA-1000 for the power transmission project.
Legal challenges Memogate, Mediagate scandals and subsequent conflicts On 10 October 2011, US-based businessman
Mansoor Ijaz wrote in an opinion piece in
The Financial Times that he acted as an intermediary between the
Pakistan Government and
US administration, with the former requesting the help of the latter to avert a
military coup in wake of
the unilateral US raid that killed al-Qaeda leader,
Osama bin Laden. He said that a senior Pakistan diplomat telephoned him with an urgent request early on 9 May, exactly a week after the raid against bin Laden. Though the Pakistan Government subsequently rejected his claims, it triggered a storm in the country's political science circles, especially between the civil government and the military. A judicial commission was subsequently appointed to investigate the matter. Meanwhile,
Chairman joint chiefs Shameem Wynne's request to the supreme court for an independent probe into the matter was accepted. The court rejected the government's contention that the issue should be investigated by a parliamentary panel. Tensions between the government and the military reached a peak after Gillani said the armed forces and the intelligence chiefs had acted in an "unconstitutional and illegal" manner by filing affidavits on the memo issue in the Supreme Court. The military reacted within days through a strongly worded statement that said the premier's remarks could have "grievous consequences".
Disqualification petition On 29 March 2012, a civilian resident of Johar Town Lahore, Tariq Ahmed, filed a court petition in the
Lahore High Court, seeking to hear the case of disqualification of Yousaf Raza Gillani. The plea was filed in the High Court in which the petitioner took the stance that "Fauzia Gillani— spouse of Prime Minister Gillani received loans of millions of rupees from the
Agriculture Development Bank Ltd (ADB) and the
National Bank of Pakistan for the two mega-corporation owned by the Gillani family of which Fauzia Gillani served both megacorporation's executive director. None of the loans of millions of rupees were paid back to the banks. Petitioner pointed out that apart from that in the Statement of Assets and Liabilities (SAL) as of 2007 investment in shares by her spouse, ownership of inherited assets and house in the Defence Housing Authority, Lahore (DHA Lahore), have not been declared in their SAL submission list given to the
Election Commission of Pakistan.
Conviction on charges of Contempt of Court On 26 April 2012, Gillani was convicted on the charges of
Contempt of Court, becoming
Pakistan's first
Prime Minister to be convicted while holding office. and the full verdict of the court (over 70 pages) had been reserved, and was handed over after few days' time. Gillani's lawyer
Aitzaz Ahsan announced that the
Prime Minister shall file an appeal against the
Supreme Court's verdict once the full verdict is handed over, despite opposition parties urgings. However, Gilani refused to step down. On 28 May 2012, the issue of the disqualification of the
Prime Minister was put to rest after a ruling by
Speaker of the
National Assembly Dr.
Fehmida Mirza, not to send the disqualification reference to the
Election Commission of Pakistan. Talking to the media representatives, the
Prime Minister maintained that he acted to defend the
Constitution of Pakistan, which according to the
Supreme Court amounted to
contempt of court. On 24 May 2012, the
Peoples Party directed the case to speaker of the National Assembly to review the case of Gillani, in light of the apex court's verdict. The speaker ruled out that, despite being convict, Gillani cannot be disqualified from the provisions of the paragraph
Article 63(g) or either
Article 63(h) of the
Constitution. Following her rulings, the speaker also decided not to forwarded the reference against Gillani's disqualification to
Election Commission. On 29 May, Gillani appeared in media and vigorously defended speaker's decision and quoted: "..(...) The National Assembly Speaker Dr. Fehmida Mirza's ruling pertaining to the disqualification reference was final and could not be challenged...()...".
Necklace Scandal In 2015, Gilani was ordered to return a necklace that had been donated by the Turkish First Lady for the victims of the 2010 floods in Pakistan. The Gilanis had held on to it and kept it after being ousted from premiership.
Vote Buying in Senate Elections In 2021, a video emerged of Gilani's son offering cash for votes in Pakistan's Senate Elections. The ruling party at the time tried but failed to get the Election Commission to investigate the matter.
Disqualification and ouster After the Speaker's ruling was made public, the major opposition party in the parliament, the
Pakistan Muslim League, and the non-elected party, the
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), filed two separate petition in the supreme court, challenging the National Assembly Speaker Dr. Fehmida Mirza's ruling to save Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani from disqualification. The petitioners pointed out that
Article 184(3) of the Constitution stands to "disqualified in light of the apex court's verdict and that he should be barred from performing further duties as the prime minister." After hearing petitions by both sides, the notices were sent to prime minister, speaker of the national assembly, and other concerned offices to the case. The hearing of the petitions was subsequently adjourned to 14 June 2012. Ahsan maintained that the prime minister had accepted the conviction but not disqualification. Mirza also submitted the written statement in which, she maintained that the court's ruling did not order that a reference on the issue should directly be sent to the Election Commission, and has had the constitutional authority to decide over the disqualification of a member of the assembly. The Supreme Court in its standing orders, said that "Gillani was ineligible to hold the
Prime Minister's office after April 26th conviction" and all orders given by him till date would stand null and void. Consequently, the
Election Commission issued the government notification with regards to the disqualification of Gillani. The country's
election commission noted that, accepting the rulings of Supreme Court, Gillani was disqualified as a member of parliament with effect immediately from 26 April 2012. He was PPP's candidate for Islamabad's general seat in the 2021 Senate Elections. He defeated the incumbent government's candidate Minister of Finance Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in a major upset victory, prompting the incumbent PM Imran Khan to take a vote of confidence from the
National Assembly. On 12 March 2021, he contested for the chairmanship of the Senate of Pakistan and lost to his rival
Sadiq Sanjrani. Gilani received 42 votes, compared to his rival who received 48 votes. 7 votes were rejected. In 2024, Gilani was elected unopposed as the
Chairman of the Senate. Gilani was re-elected on 14 March 2024 after receiving 204 votes and currently is a Senator of the
Senate of Pakistan. Chairman Gilani served as the acting-
President of Pakistan from 20 May 2024 till 30 May 2024, from 10 October 2024 till 11 October 2024, from 30 October 2024 till 9 November 2024, from 4 February 2025 till 8 February 2025, from 9 February 2025 till 12 February 2025, from 13 March 2025 till 16 March 2025, from 12 September 2025 till 21 September 2025, from 27 September 2025 till 4 October 2025, 3 November 2025 till 6 November 2025, from 20 December 2025 till 24 December 2025, from 13 January 2026 till 16 January 2026, from 26 January 2026 till 29 January 2026 and then again from 25 April 2026 till 01 May 2026 this was during periods the
President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari remained abroad. ==Assessment and legacy==