After the 1999 Pakistani coup d'état, Shehbaz along with his family spent years of self-exile in Saudi Arabia, returning to Pakistan in 2007.

Shehbaz was appointed chief minister for a second term after the PML-N's victory in Punjab province in the 2008 Pakistani general election.

Shehbaz was nominated as the president of the Pakistan Muslim League-N after his brother, Nawaz Sharif, was disqualified from holding office in the wake of the Panama Papers case.

[6] His father, Muhammad Sharif, was an upper-middle-class businessman and industrialist whose family had emigrated from Anantnag in Kashmir for business, and eventually settled in the village of Jati Umra in Amritsar district, Punjab, at the beginning of the twentieth century.

[14] He was re-elected to the Provincial Assembly of Punjab from Constituency PP-125 (Lahore-X) as a candidate of Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) in 1993 general election.

[10][14] Shehbaz Sharif was re-elected to the Provincial Assembly of Punjab from Constituency PP-125 (Lahore-X) as a candidate of PML-N in 1997 general election.

[3][16] During his tenure as Chief Minister of Punjab, he was praised for his good governance in the province because of his focus on health, education, agriculture and industrial sectors.

[16][18] While in exile in Saudi Arabia, Shehbaz was elected as the President of PML-N in August 2002[10][16] and moved to the United Kingdom in mid-2003 for medical treatment.

[18] In 1999, a complainant Saeeduddin lodged FIR and accused Shehbaz of allowing the Sabzazar police, as the Chief Minister of the Punjab, to kill his son along with other men in a fake encounter.

[16] Shehbaz was ineligible to take part in the 2008 general election due to Sabzazar case, but a few months later he was acquitted by the court.

[28][20] Shehbaz was re-elected to the Provincial Assembly of Punjab unopposed from Constituency PP-48 (Bhakkar-II) as a candidate of PML-N in the by-election held in June 2008.

[33] On 1 April 2009, a five-member larger bench of the Supreme Court overturned the earlier decision, reinstating Shehbaz as chief minister.

[34] In 2013 general election, Shehbaz was re-elected to the Provincial Assembly of Punjab from three Constituencies PP-159 (Lahore-XXIII), PP-161 (Lahore-XXV) and PP-247 (Rajanpur-I), as a PML-N candidate.

[39][40][41] However, he was not a member of the National Assembly, so Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was asked to serve as the interim prime minister of Pakistan, allowing Shehbaz enough time to enter the legislature through a by-election.

[60] On 12 October 2022, Shehbaz and his son were acquitted on all charges of corruption and money laundering by the Special Court Central in Lahore.

"[61] On 10 April 2022, Sharif was nominated as a candidate for Prime Minister by opposition parties following the no-confidence motion against Imran Khan after the 2022 Pakistani constitutional crisis.

[64][65] He took the oath of office on the same day, administered by the Chairman of the Senate, Sadiq Sanjrani, acting for President Arif Alvi, who was on medical leave after complaining of "discomfort".

[69] Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang has expressed clear concerns about Pakistan's internal instability,[70] despite China providing economic support for its longtime ally.

[73][74] Imran Khan called the coalition a "daylight robbery" and warned "against the misadventure of forming a government with stolen votes.

IMF conditions led to increases in tax rates, while purchasing power declined in tandem with stagnant wage growth, outpaced by inflation.

[89][90][91] On 19 December 2016, Vice-Minister Zheng Xiaosong of the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party coined the term Shehbaz Speed to acknowledge his contributions to expediting the progress of projects within the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

[101] On 14 July 2019, the Daily Mail published a news with the headline: "Did the family of Pakistani politician who has become the poster boy for British overseas aid STEAL funds meant for earthquake victims?"

According to the report, Shehbaz Sharif stole aid funds from the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) following the 2005 earthquake.

[102][103] David Rose claimed that former chief minister of Punjab Shehbaz Sharif used the aid funds to send one million pounds through money laundering to his frontman Aftab Mehmood, a British citizen of Pakistani descent, who then gave the money to Shahbaz Sharif's family.

Shehbaz Sharif and his family allegedly stole British citizens' tax relief funds, according to news reports.

Justice Nicklin ruled at the meaning hearing at the London High Court in favour of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz and his son-in-law.

Justice Nicklin determined that the Mail on Sunday's article carried the highest level of defamatory meaning for both Shehbaz and Yousaf.

Following negotiations to resolve the dispute after March 2022 between Daily Mail and PM Shehbaz, it was made apparent to the premier's legal counsel that the publication would issue an apology and take down the item under his conditions.

[106] Three days prior to this hearing, Shahbaz pulled his request for a delay in favor of a full trial in a shrewd political move.

Shahbaz Sharif was persuaded by his legal staff that there was no use in submitting more paperwork as the paper had already agreed to apologise and remove the defamatory and misleading piece.