Political workers, civil society activists, traders and journalists gathered in Lahore to pay their last respects to Begum Kulsoom Nawaz.
She died at a clinic in London on Tuesday after a year-long battle with cancer.
She was 68.
Sharif, a three-time premier now serving time in jail for corruption, was released temporarily on parole on Tuesday to attend the funeral.
The couple’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz, and her husband were also released from prison to accompany the former leader.
Kulsoom remained apolitical for most of her life, except for a period when former military ruler Pervez Musharraf arrested her husband following a 1999 coup.
It was thanks to agitation led by Kulsoom that Pakistani generals allowed Sharif to go into exile in Saudi Arabia, despite having been handed a death sentence by a court.
Though funerals are considered sombre occasions in Pakistan, thousands of Sharif’s loyalists chanted slogans to denounce his conviction.
