From jail to prime minister
A former parliamentary speaker who spent half the last decade in jail, Yousaf Raza Gillani is one of the most loyal followers of former premier Benazir Bhutto.
Gillani, a 58-year-old father-of-five, was nominated by Pakistan Peoples Party on Saturday night to be the crisis-hit countrys next prime minister after a month of torturous deliberations.
Gillani only emerged as the frontrunner last week, but was helped by his closeness to Asif Ali Zardari, who was in jail at the same time as him under the regime of President Pervez Musharraf.
Party insiders and friends said he was from a less elitist background than other PPP figures and would likely be a safe pair of hands in a looming showdown between Musharraf and a hostile incoming government.
Close friend Khawaja Adnan, who was in Rawalpindis harsh Adiala Jail at the same time as Gillani, said that despite his time behind bars he would not necessarily hold a grudge against Musharraf.
Yousaf Raza Gillani is a non-vindictive politician who firmly believes in the superiority of the party, Adnan told AFP.
He is a passionate Pakistani and he has suffered for the restoration of democracy in the country. He is a very humble man, Adnan added.
The question remains however whether Gillani is just a seat-warmer for Zardari, who was not eligible to be premier because he is not an MP, but who may decide to fight a by-election in May and take over the post.
Political analyst and newspaper columnist Shafqat Mahmood said Gillani was an experienced politician who would abide by Zardaris wishes.
He has won his political spurs by spending more than five years in jail during Musharrafs dictatorship, Mahmood told AFP.
He will be the kind of figure who will be acceptable to most people because he is a soft person. As far as the party unity is concerned, it will be in the domain of Mr Zardari.
Gillani was born in 1950 into a family with a long heritage as guardians of shrines in Multan, known as the 'City of Saints'.
His father was an MP in the 1950s and had modest landholdings, but party officials said they were not in the same league as other PPP leaders including the Bhuttos and Gillanis main rival for the PM post, Makhdoom Amin Fahim.
He took a masters degree in journalism and entered politics in the 1980s, when he was part of a cabinet under the military dictator Ziaul Haq, who had Bhuttos father hanged in 1979.
But he quit the administration in 1988 to join the PPP, defeating future prime minister Nawaz Sharif in elections that year after Zias death in a mysterious air crash.
Bhutto appointed Gillani as a minister for health and then for housing in her first government from 1988 to 1990. He was then speaker from 1993 to 1996 in Bhuttos second government.
But after Musharraf grabbed power in a military coup in 1999 Gillani was targeted in an anti-corruption crackdown.
He was charged with granting 350 government jobs to people without following correct procedures and for excessive use of telephones and cars as speaker, and spent five years in jail.
The PPP said the charges against Gillani and other members including Zardari were politically motivated.
All charges against holders of public office from that time were wiped out under an amnesty deal that allowed Bhutto to return from self-imposed exile in October last year.
Parliament is now set to elect the premier on Monday, with Gillani a certainty thanks to the majority the PPP and its coalition partners hold.
But one final hurdle remains - his only son is set to marry in Karachi on the same day, leaving him facing a tough first day on the job.
Gillani belongs to an influential political and religious family of Multan.
Soon after getting his Masters Degree in Journalism, from Punjab University Yusuf Raza Gillani joined the Muslim Leagues Central Working Committee.
After a brief association with the Muslim League, Gillani joined PPP soon after the dismissal of Mohammed Khan Junejos government and has stayed with the party since then.
He was elected MNA in the non-party based election from NA-119 and remained member of the assembly from March 20, 1985 to May 29, 1980 and he also served as federal minister from 1985-88.
He remained speaker of National Assembly from October 17, 1993 to February 16, 1997.
In 2001, the Accountability Court awarded him 10 years imprisonment and fine to the tune of Rs. 100 million in a controversial illegal appointment reference case.
He spent four years in jail, during which both his sister and mother died. In October 2006 High Court set aside the imprisonment and released him on bail.
His unflinching support to the PPP during in times of crisis and his refusal to bow to the establishment had built his image as a principled politician, a rare trait of Pakistani politics.
His conduct as speaker of the National Assembly raised his status as a mature politician committed to parliamentary traditions.
As speaker of the National Assembly, he differed with the then Prime Minister Benazir on several occasions. He had issued summon orders under Rule 90 for jailed opposition leaders despite Benazir Bhuttos open opposition.
He is also writer of a book Chah-e-Yusuf Say Sada wherein he shared his experiences and provided first hand account of Pakistans political leaders and their contribution to Pakistans political system; beginning from Ziaul Haq till the Musharraf regime.
The Nation
