Shehbaz began his political career after getting elected to the Provincial Assembly of Punjab from Constituency PP-122 (Lahore-VII) as a candidate of Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (JI) in 1988 general election.[13][19][20] He secured 22,372 votes and defeated a candidate of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).[19] However his term prematurely ended in 1990 when the assemblies were dissolved.[12][21]