Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani

Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani is a Pakistani politician from Multan who served as the 16th Prime Minister of Pakistan from 2008 to 2012. A member of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), he holds the distinction of being Pakistan’s first and, to date, only ethnic Saraiki Prime Minister, making him one of the most prominent political figures to emerge from the Saraiki-speaking belt of South Punjab.

Born into a landowning Sufi Sayyid family of Multan with a long history in local and provincial politics, Gillani studied journalism at Government College University and the University of the Punjab in Lahore. He entered politics in 1978 through the Pakistan Muslim League before joining the Pakistan Peoples Party in 1988, going on to serve as a federal minister and later as Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan from 1993 to 1997.

In 2001, during the military government of General Pervez Musharraf, Yousaf Raza Gillani was arrested on corruption-related charges connected to his tenure as Speaker and was imprisoned for more than five years before his release in 2006. Following the 2008 general election, he was elected Prime Minister by Parliament, a position he held for over four years, during which his government presided over the restoration of Pakistan’s judiciary, the founding of the University of Swat, and an expansion of the country’s civil nuclear energy programme. In April 2012, Gillani became the first sitting Prime Minister of Pakistan to be convicted while in office, after the Supreme Court found him guilty of contempt of court; the conviction led to his disqualification from the premiership in June 2012.

Yousaf Raza Gillani remained active in national politics after leaving office, serving as Leader of the Opposition in the Senate of Pakistan from 2021 to 2022. In April 2024, he was elected the 9th Chairman of the Senate of Pakistan, a position he continues to hold, and briefly served as Acting President of Pakistan for ten days in May 2024 while President Asif Ali Zardari was abroad.