Gulshan Town was formed in 2001 as part of the Local Government Ordinance 2001, and was subdivided into 11 union councils.

[3] Commissioner of Karachi (Syed Darbar Ali Shah) envisioned setting up a new town Gulshan-e-Iqbal on 16 April 1966.

It was originally Karachi Development Authority (scheme 24) which was renamed in the name of Pakistan's national poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal.

Languages of Gulshan-e-Iqbal sub-division (2023 Pakistani census) There are 973,314 people of which 589,350 spoke Urdu, 97,745 Sindhi, 86,116 Punjabi, 77,423 Saraiki, 50,465 Pashto, 24,172 Balochi, 13,421 Hindko, 2,217 Kashmiri, 2,023 Shina, 1,291 Mewati, 1,215 Balti, 777 Brahui & 27,099 others.

Gulshan-e-Iqbal area may be called as a university town having more than a dozen of higher education institutions.