Freedom of expression during each prime minister's tenure
Every prime minister since 1991, ranked by how the freedom of expression changed from their first day in office. Politare shows what happened during a tenure; it does not claim the office-holder caused it.
| # | Prime minister | In office | Total | Per year | Chart |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Yusuf Raza Gilani | 25 Mar 2008 – 22 Jun 2012 | +9.4 points 2007 → 2011 | +2.4 points/yr | |
| 2 | N Pervez Musharraf | 12 Oct 1999 – 23 Nov 2002 | +8.0 points 1999 → 2002 | +2.7 points/yr | |
| 3 |  Nawaz Sharif | 17 Feb 1997 – 12 Oct 1999 | +4.2 points 1996 → 1999 | +1.4 points/yr | |
| 4 |  Imran Khan | 18 Aug 2018 – 11 Apr 2022 | +0.6 points 2018 → 2021 | +0.2 points/yr | |
| 5 | Benazir Bhutto | 19 Oct 1993 – 5 Nov 1996 | 0.0 points 1993 → 1996 | 0.0 points/yr | |
| 6 |  Shaukat Aziz | 28 Aug 2004 – 16 Nov 2007 | −0.8 points 2004 → 2007 | −0.3 points/yr | |
| 7 | Nawaz Sharif | 5 Jun 2013 – 1 Aug 2017 | −17.6 points 2012 → 2017 | −3.5 points/yr |
Sorted by total, highest first. Every row is indexed to the last count complete before the first day in office ("from" marks a start that had to move because that count had no data, or because the period cut it); Levels are per cent changes, rates are differences in points; "per year" compounds levels and divides rates. Tenures with under 12 months, or under three observations, are left out. points, 0 to 100, V-Dem's 0 to 1 index times 100 · V-Dem Institute, V-Dem dataset v16 (v2x_freexp_altinf): the freedom of expression and alternative sources of information index, the press, academic and private speech and the media's independence, as V-Dem's country experts rate them, with V-Dem's confidence interval; the 0 to 1 index times 100 · Pakistan data · as of Oct 2026.