[6] A senior-ranking leader in the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from Rawalpindi District, Ashraf assumed premiership on 22 June 2012 after Yousaf Raza Gillani was disqualified over contempt of court charges.

[9] Ashraf belongs to the Minhas clan of Pakhral and is originally from Gujar Khan, an industrial town in the Rawalpindi District of the Potohar region in northern Punjab.

[11] Ashraf has been twice elected Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan (MNA) from his constituency of Gujar Khan, Rawalpindi District.

[2] He became the head of the Water and Power Ministry in the coalition government of PPP, PML-N, ANP, JUI-F and MQM formed after the 2008 elections.

[20] According to a report on his parliamentary performance, the water and power ministry while Ashraf was in-charge received as many as 1,147 official questions and queries, of which only 60% were responded to.

[citation needed] The report opined that Ashraf's performance as minister was "tainted by failures to overcome the power shortfall that continued to aggravate even after he was replaced" and that his actions and responses both inside and outside the National Assembly had "not been translated into actions"[11] Nevertheless, about 3,570 megawatts of power was added to the national grid during the PPP government, a major portion of which came during Ashraf's term in office.

His term is said to have overseen relatively more megawatts being added to the national grid when compared to other ministers of power and energy since Benazir Bhutto's last government.

[citation needed] One of the main reasons for power crisis, which have never received due attention and focus is the circular debt and which continued to increase over the years.

[citation needed] On 26 April 2012, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani was convicted of being in contempt of court for refusing to bring charges against President Asif Ali Zardari.

[19] The Associated Press said Ashraf's election was "unlikely to calm the tensions roiling the country" and noted that many observers expected him to eventually be ousted like his predecessor.

[19] Within 24 hours of being elected, Ashraf held a meeting to resolve the energy crisis in the country and directed the Ministry of Petroleum to ensure the supply of 28,000 tonnes of fuel daily to power plants, so as to add 1200 mega watts to the national grid system.

[26] The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) was critical of this renewed focus on energy, calling it a "useless effort" with the president of PEW, Murtaza Mughal, remarking that load shedding had only "increased in the harrowing summer", making life difficult for the ordinary citizen; Mughal further noted that the announcement of adding more fuel into independent power producers had been portrayed positively, despite the fact that the actual problem did not lie in scarcity of fuel but rather in non-payment of dues.

[27] Businesspeople and economists in Pakistan had a mixed response to Ashraf's appointment; while some appreciated the prime minister's focus on the energy crisis and hoped for greater cooperation between key institutions and political parties as being good for economic stability, others questioned his reputation related to rental power and expressed anxiety over the government's ongoing clash with the judiciary which could cause uncertainty and scare businesses away.

[32] On 25 July 2012, The Supreme Court gave Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to 8 August 2012 to implement its order by writing a letter to Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zradari.

The post was inaugurated on 25 June and Chaudhry Pervez Elahi of PML-Q was appointed as the first deputy prime minister of the country.

On 27 June 2012, the Supreme Court of Pakistan gave prime minister Ashraf two weeks to indicate whether he would ask Swiss authorities to reopen corruption cases against president Zardari.

[37] In the first week of July, he directed attention on the Balochistan conflict and called for a high-level meeting to discuss the issue of missing persons in the province.

[38] In the first week of July, Ashraf announced the government's plans to establish legislation which would remove the bar on dual nationality holders from contesting in elections.

[45][46] On 24 June 2012, several Tehrik-i-Taliban militants from Afghanistan entered Pakistan's bordering tribal areas killing 13 Pakistani troops, of which seven were beheaded.

The attack, one of several such cross-border skirmishes, was strongly condemned with Raja Pervaiz Ashraf stating that the matter would be directly taken to Afghan president Hamid Karzai.

[54] On 30 March, the apex court had directed the National Accountability Bureau to proceed against those who were in the post of minister for water and power from 2006 till the next general elections.

"[59] The accountability court in Islamabad indicted former Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and six others in the rental power case on 16 January 2014.