[10] Jahangir Tareen was born on 4 July 1953 in the city of Comilla, which back then was part of East Bengal in Pakistan, but is now located in Bangladesh.

His younger brother, Alamgir Tareen, a businessman who operated one of the largest water purification plants in the country and who was also the founder and owner of the Multan Sultans franchise in the Pakistan Super League, committed suicide in 2023, at the age of 63.

[13] His paternal cousin, Shaukat Tarin, is a banker who has served as the country's Finance Minister twice, including under Imran Khan from 2021 – 2022.

[19] He married Amina Tareen, the daughter of Syed Hasan Mahmood and the sister of Makhdoom Ahmed Mehmood, both having been seasoned politicians, especially influential, in the Rahim Yar Khan District of Punjab, where the family has "considerable, spiritual and feudal influence.

[1][20][17] He served as special adviser on agriculture and social sector initiatives to then Chief Minister of Punjab Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.

[22] In the 2008 Pakistani general election, Tareen was re-elected as a member of the National Assembly for the second time from Constituency NA-195 on the seat of Pakistan Muslim League (F).

[31][32][33][34] In 2016, PML-N filed a reference to disqualify Tareen from his National Assembly seat for "submitting false statements with the Election Commission of Pakistan".

[36] On 15 December 2017, the Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified Tareen from serving as a member of parliament under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution due to dishonesty in financial declarations.