Yousaf Raza Gillani

Title & tenure

18th Prime Minister of Pakistan (2008–2012)

In office: 2008 – 2012

Predecessor:

Muhammadmian Soomro, caretaker

Successor:

Raja Pervez Ashraf

Biography

Yousaf Raza Gillani, a veteran Pakistan Peoples Party leader and former National Assembly Speaker, became Prime Minister in 2008 after the PPP's election victory following Benazir Bhutto's assassination, and went on to hold the office longer than any of his elected predecessors.

Achievements

• Became the longest continuously serving elected Prime Minister in Pakistan's history to that point, completing over four years in office
• Oversaw passage of the Eighteenth Amendment (2010), which devolved significant power to the provinces and stripped the presidency of its power to dismiss elected governments
• Government presided over the 2010 Concurrent List reforms transferring further subjects to provincial control

Key events

• Took office in 2008 following the PPP-led coalition's general election victory
• Government faced the 2010 Pakistan floods, one of the worst natural disasters in the country's history
• Convicted of contempt of court in 2012 for refusing to act on a Supreme Court order to reopen corruption cases against President Zardari, leading to his disqualification

Legacy

Gillani's tenure is remembered for the Eighteenth Amendment's major devolution of federal power and for being removed through judicial disqualification rather than a presidential dismissal or military coup, reflecting a judiciary that had become far more assertive after the 2007 lawyers' movement.

How it ended

Disqualified from holding office by the Supreme Court in June 2012 over the contempt conviction; succeeded by Raja Pervez Ashraf.