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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ISLAMABAD 000970 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/28/2018 
TAGS: PGOV PK PREL
SUBJECT: POTENTIAL PAKISTANI PRIME MINISTER YOUSEF RAZA 
GILLANI 
 

Classified By: Anne W. Patterson, Reasons 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
¶1. (C) Summary: This is one of several profiles on political  leaders who will play a large role in Pakistan's new  government. The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) is in the  process of coalition negotiations on forming a government but  still faces a leadership struggle within its own ranks.  With  his separate power base in the party, Amin Faheem remains the  probable front-runner for the job as Prime Minister, but PPP  Co-Chair Asif Zardari sees Faheem as personally weak and  politically positioned to rival Zardari.  Makhdoom Syed  Yousef Raza Gillani, Vice Chairman of the Pakistan People's  Party, has been proposed as an alternative to Faheem. Gillani  is a seasoned politician who descends from a politically and  spiritually influential family in southern Punjab's Multan  district; he won a National Assembly seat from Multan in the  2008 parliamentary elections. End Summary. 
  Career History 
-------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Gillani entered politics as a Member of the Central  Working Committee of the United Muslim League (1978) and was  elected in 1983 as Chairman of the District Council, Multan. 
Gillani was elected to the National Assembly as an  independent in the non-party elections of 1985 and was  appointed Minister for Housing and Works, Railways, Urban  Affairs, and Environment. 
 
¶3. (SBU) In 1988, Gillani clashed with then Pakistan Muslim  League (PML) Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo and decided  to join the PPP.  He was reelected on a PPP ticket in 1988  and appointed Minister of Tourism and Housing and Works. 
Gillani won a National Assembly seat in 1990, defeating  then-head of the Gillani family, Makhdoom Syed Hamid Raza  Gillani.  He was reelected in the 1993 elections and became  Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan (1993-1996) 
under Benazir Bhutto. Gillani lost his seat in the 1997  election, but has been Vice Chairman of the PPP since 1998. 
Gillani was just elected to the National Assembly from  Southern Punjab's Multan district, where he defeated an  incumbent who was a Federal Minister for Food in the previous  government. 
 
¶4. (C) Gillani was arrested on February 10, 2001 under  corruption charges and sentenced by an accountability court  to five years imprisonment and a fine of 1 million rupees. He  was charged with misuse of authority and convicted for  causing a loss of 10.6 million rupees through the ""misuse"" of  official transport, official telephones, setting up camp  offices at Lahore and Multan, and for purchasing luxury  vehicles at higher than market prices.   While in jail,  Gillani authored a book about his political history and  imprisonment, titled ""Chah-e-Yousaf Say Sada,"" which loosely  translates to ""from the well where Prophet Joseph was dumped  by his brothers.""  In October 2006 the Lahore High Court  approved the appeal of his sentence and ordered his release. 
 
  Personal History 
---------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Gillani married in 1979 and has five children,  including triplet sons. His eldest son, Syed Abdul Qadir  Gillani attended Cambridge University and unsuccessfully  contested the February 2008 parliamentary elections for a  seat from Multan.  Qadir also is engaged to the granddaughter  of Pir Sahib Pagaro, who is president of the PML-Functional  and a Sindhi spiritual and political leader. Gillani is  related to a number of other influential Pakistani  politicians.  His father-in-law, Pir Israr Hussain Shah was a  politically and religiously influential Sindhi leader who was  a Sindhi senator from 1991 to 1998. 
 
¶6. (C) Gillani was born in Karachi on June 9, 1952. He  attended school in Multan at St. Mary's Convent and La Salle,  a Christian missionary high school. His father served as a  provincial minister and minister of state in the 1950s, but  wished Gillani would become a doctor. Gillani instead  obtained a B.A. with Honors in English Literature from  Government College and a Master's degree in journalism from  Lahore's Punjab University. 
  ISLAMABAD 00000970  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶7. (C) Comment: Gillani is a charismatic leader with strong  popular support, particularly in the southern Punjab and  parts of northern Sindh.  Following his release from prison  in late 2006, Gillani attempted to reassert himself as leader  of the PPP's Punjab party, launching a well-received and  well-publicized speaking tour of the province.  Benazir  Bhutto, who strongly resented Gillani's rising popularity,  attempted to undermine his attempts at provincial leadership  by appointing his political and spiritual rival from Multan,  Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, as the party's Punjab  President.  Gillani, who was strongly offended by the move,  opened ultimately unsuccessful negotiations with the PML on a  possible defection. 
 
¶8. (C) Gillani, who sees Qureshi as a late entry to the PPP,  a potential turncoat with few political principles, and a  ""false"" spiritual leader, has actively tried to undermine  Qureshi with the party's rank and file.  Gillani is equally  uncomfortable working with central Punjab leaders Qasim Zia  and Jehangir Bader, who head their own factions within the  Punjab PPP.  Gillani has, however, at varying times cut  working relationships with Zia and Bader against Qureshi.  In  an attempt to balance the Punjab party, Benazir allowed all  four leaders and their supporters an equal number of seats,  which led to serious conflicts at the grassroots level. 
Gillani has been troubled by Zardari's public embrace of Shah  Mehmood Qureshi as leader of the Punjab PPP in the aftermath  of Benazir's assassination.  He has repeatedly attempted to  convince Zardari that he, not Qureshi, should receive the  Co-Chairman's endorsement and backing as leader within the  Punjab. 
 
¶9. (C) Zardari is equally upset that Makhdoom Amin Faheem,  who held the same rank as Gillani within the party hierarchy  at the time of Benazir's death, was taken both domestically  and internationally as her legitimate successor.  In  meetings, Gillani has repeatedly pointed out that he held the  position of Vice Chair longer than Faheem and should have  been treated as the senior member and elevated to Senior Vice  Chairman of the party.  While Gillani respects Faheem and has  no discernible personal rivalry with him, he has been avidly  touting himself as an alternative for the Prime Ministerial  office that Faheem covets. End Comment. 
PATTERSON