[24][25] Yousaf Raza Gillani's political career started in the military government of President General Zia-ul-Haq in 1978, after he joined as a member of the Central Working Committee (CWC) of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), alongside industrialist Nawaz Sharif.

[34] 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.

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.

[40] 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.

[43] 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.

[47][48] 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.

[53] 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.

[53] After the 1988 general elections, he secured his ministerial appointment in the Ministry of Tourism in the government of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and since then, he had been a senior member of parliament for the Multan District.

[54] 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.

[54] On 11 February 2001, Gillani was imprisoned in Adiala Jail by a military court instituted under President Pervez Musharraf[55] on accusations and charges of corruption, and released on 7 October 2006.

[63] Pakistan does not harbour any aggressive designs against any state, but it is determined to defend its territorial integrity.... That is why we need to maintain a balance in conventional forces suitably backed by minimum credible deterrence.

"Our military capability is basically for the deterrence purpose while peace remains the ultimate cherished goal for Pakistan..."In his first days of government, Gillani attempted to continue the Privation of Shaukat Aziz, but the programme was abruptly terminated after the financial crisis of 2007–2008.

[69] In January 2012, Prime minister Gillani announced the "economic sector have been achieved during the first six months of the current fiscal due to the prudent policies of the present government".

[77][78][79] The Pakistan economy slowed down dramatically to ~4.09% as compared to 8.96%—9.0% presided under his predecessor, Shaukat Aziz in 2004–08; while the yearly growth rate has come down from a long-term average of 5.0% to ~2.0%, though it did not reached to negative level.

[78] Calculation performed by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, it pointed out that the "nation's currency in circulation as a percentage of total deposits is 31%, which is very high as compared to India", where 40.0% of the population fell under the line of poverty, with 16.0% rise in the inflation during his four years of presiding over the country.

The main points in his address were focused on the crisis of flour shortage, load-shedding, terrorism and extremism, restoration of judges, economic downslide and, above all, inflation and unemployment in the country.

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.

[89] 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.

[90] 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.

[95] After a year of careful study, General Majid's plan was submitted to Gillani who approved the new strategy, which followed the new order of battle and new deployments of combat units of joint army-navy-air force in the north-western region.

[95] Unlike the predecessor Aziz government's deployment, Gilani redeployed fresh combatant units of unified Pakistan Armed Forces to take on the militants hiding in country's tribal areas.

[98] After resuming the office, Gillani's foreign policy greatly relaxed the relationships with the United Kingdom, despite British counterpart's "harsh" comments on country's role in the war on terror in 2010.

[100][101] 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.

[106] Gallani met with Nicolas Sarkozy and signed agreement on co-operation on energy, telecommunication, infrastructure development, banking, environment, waste management and defence.

[122] 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.

[127] 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.

[128] 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.

[130] 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.

[151] 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.

"[168] Gillani is prudently criticised for the prolonged Era of Stagflation, in which fundamental economic problems were ignored, corruption, government mismanagement, and issues involving the law enforcement.