Pakistan Premier League

Origins

Pakistan's first professional football league began on 28 May 1948 as the National Football Championship. The league was a knock-out competition, which remained as the top football league in the country until 2004 with the introduction of the Pakistan Premier League. National Football Championship featured teams representing cities or provinces, unlike current format where departmental teams predominate. National Football League also featured teams from Dhaka (Dacca FC) and Chittagong (Chittagong FC) from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Dacca FC won two back-to-back leagues, and Chittagong FC won league only once.

The 1948–49 Pakistan National Football League was the first season of the NFL and ended with Sindh Blue being crowned champions. The National Football League era though saw Karachi based Pakistan Airlines with most championships, winning the competition nine times with their first league title in 1971, and their last title win was in the season of 1998–99.

Foundation

In August 2003, major restructuring was undertaken by the Pakistan Football Federation with support of FIFA's Goal Programme. Several new training facilities were built across the country and a new Pakistan Football Federation Head Office was built in Lahore. Under new management, the Pakistan Football Federation restructured the National Football Championship and in 2004 introduced the National League Division A which contained 16 clubs, and the National League Division B with 5 clubs.

The 16 inaugural members of the new National League were:

• Afghan Chaman
• Allied Bank
• Baloch Quetta
• Habib Bank
• Karachi Port Trust
• Khan Research Laboratories
• Mardan
• Mauripur Baloch
• Naka Muhammaden
• Panther Club
• Pakistan Army
• Pakistan Navy
• Pakistan Telecommunication
• WAPDA
• Wohaib
• Young Eleven

Premier League

In 2006–07 season, the National League Division A Football League was renamed to the Pakistan Premier League while the National League Division B Football League was renamed to the PFF League. In the following 2007–08 season, the league was expanded to 14 clubs. For the 2010–11 season the league was expanded to 16 clubs. The two bottom teams at the end of each Pakistan Premier League season would to be relegated to the PFF League, while the top 2 teams in the Football Federation League would be promoted to the Pakistan Premier League.

The league was suspended in 2015 due to the Pakistan Football Federation crisis, until the lift on suspension by FIFA on 13 March 2018. After resuming the activities in the 2018–19 season, the league was again not held from 2019 to 2021.

The federation was once again suspended from all football activities by FIFA on 7 April 2021. The league was suspended after a few months into the 2021–22 season and then cancelled.