Abbas was born on 4 January 1953 in Lahore, Pakistan into the Punjabi-speaking Sharif family. 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. His mother's family came from Pulwama. Following the partition of India and Pakistan's independence in 1947, his parents migrated from Amritsar to Lahore.
Family
Sharif was married to Sabiha Abbas. They had two sons, Aziz and Yousuf, and two daughters, Salma and Sara. His two brothers were Nawaz Sharif (a three-time former Prime Minister of Pakistan), and Shehbaz Sharif (the 23rd and current Prime Minister of Pakistan).