Her political activism started after joining the centre-right Pakistan Muslim League (PML) led by Prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 1988; but defected to dissident group in 2000.

"[4] Approved by President Pervez Musharraf, the programme was in making the madrassa (seminaries) integrated with modern education reforms.

[5] Reforms were set to be carried out to change the school curriculum and many revival updates, deregulation of the textbooks were part of the program which was oversaw by the Zubaida Jalal.

[6] The education ministry did not made no movement on seminary reforms and registration, with no related meetings scheduled and new no policy guidelines issued to government departments.

[6] In a media report published by Daily Times, the Education ministry failed in making the madrassa (seminaries) reforms successful in 2004.

[8] The powerful clerics threatened the government upon which the federal education minister Zubaida Jalal immediately clarified that no chapter or verses relating to jihad or Holy War or shahadat (martyrdom) had been deleted from textbook and that the particular verse referring to jihad had only been shifted from the biology textbook for intermediate students.

[8] According to the Education ministry, the major reason for this failure was the view of the madrassas that the project was part of an American agenda.

[7] In 2008, Jalal decided not to obtain the PML(Q) ticket, and instead contested in 2008 general elections as an independent candidate, from the NA–272 constituency.

[10] She lost the 2008 general election while securing only 33,564 votes and losing to Yaqoob Bizanjo of Balochistan National Party (Awami).

In 2010 publications edited by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDT), Zubaida Jalal is a second richest politician from Balochistan, having declared the total assets worth ₨.