Raja Pervaiz Ashraf

Raja Pervaiz Ashraf (born 26 December 1950) is a Punjabi Pakistani politician, businessman and agriculturist who served as the 19th Prime Minister of Pakistan from June 2012 to March 2013 and as the Speaker of the National Assembly from April 2022 to March 2024.

Ashraf was a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from NA-58 (Rawalpindi-II).

He has also served as the Senior Vice President of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance of political parties opposed to Imran Khan's PTI party.

Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was born to a Punjabi Muslim family on 26 December 1950 in Sanghar, Sindh.

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.

The Potohar region is home to numerous prominent political and military personalities.

Ashraf comes from a middle class Punjabi speaking family of landowners who have had a traditional background in politics.

An uncle of his served as a minister in the cabinet of Ayub Khan during the 1960s.

His parents owned agricultural land in the town of Sanghar in Sindh, where he was born and brought up.

He graduated from the University of Sindh in 1970 and was involved in agriculture before entering politics.

He is married to Nusrat Pervaiz Ashraf and has four children, which include two sons and two daughters.

Ashraf is multilingual and can fluently speak English, Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi.

He is regarded as an important PPP loyalist and leader in the Rawalpindi region.

He contested parliamentary elections in 1990, 1993 and 1997.

He won in elections held in 2002 and then in 2008, following which he was appointed as federal minister for water, and as power minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani.

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

Prior to being elevated as prime minister, he served as the Minister for Water and Power in the Yousaf Raza Gillani-led government from March 2008 to February 2011.

He won re-election in the February 2008 elections.

During his time as an MNA, he served as a member of the Standing Committee on Kashmir and the Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights.

Before his ascendance to the post of prime minister, he was also the secretary general of the PPP.

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.

During his tenure as power minister, there was a chronic shortage of electricity generation throughout the country and power cuts (load shedding) remained frequent.

In the position, he faced heavy criticism for repeatedly promising the country's power crisis would be over "by 2008" as the country suffered regular blackouts.

He became one of the most sought after ministers in the National Assembly, by legislators who demanded answers for the power crisis.

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.

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" 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.

He was accused of receiving kickbacks in the rental power projects, and of using illegal money to buy foreign property.

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.

Shortlisted by the PPP as a candidate for the post, he was eventually elected based on a 211–89 vote in the National Assembly.

Tackling the corruption scandals, one of the major achievements during his premiership was his interest to develop and implement hydro projects in particular the 970-MW Neelum-Jhelum project.

The project had received a big jolt when the Chinese Exim Bank refused to release a $448 million loan linking it to the restoration of the Safe City Project in Islamabad which was stopped by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

During his tenure Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) launched a number of mega and medium-sized projects in Gilgit–Baltistan.

Ashraf denied the charges, and as of June 2012, was defending himself before the Supreme Court.

No official charges have been framed against him as no evidence could be presented so far.

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.

The government has time and again tried to clear the circular debt, however it comes again.

This is because of the structural issues including power theft, poor recovery from other government departments, difference between cost of generation and actual cost charged to customer.

During Ashraf's government prioritised hydro power projects in particular Neelum Jhelum 970 MW.

During his term, WAPDA initiated several hydro projects in Gilgit Baltistan (GB) including the Satpara Dam having 17 MW power generation capacity and 0.093 million acre feetwater storage capacity and Diamer-Bhasha Dam having 4,500 MW power generation capacity and 8.1 million acre feet water storage capacity, along with hydropower projects of 7,100 MW Bunji, 34 MW Harpo, 80 MW Phandar and 40 MW Basho.