Designed in a 1960s modernist style, it was completed in 1971, and is an iconic symbol of Karachi as well as one of the most popular tourist sites in the city.

The tomb of Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar, a stalwart of the Muslim League from Peshawar, is also located there.

[6] The competition was initially won by British architect William Whitfield,[7] of the Raglan Squire and Partners firm.

[4] Numerous proposals were submitted by Pakistani citizens following independence: ranging from a shrine, to a neo-Mughal monument.

[4] The idealists suggestions directly from ordinary Pakistani citizens reflected the "radical utopianism" that swept through the Muslims of the subcontinent around the Pakistan Movement.

[4] Proposals from the Malay engineer and architect Ainuddin, suggested a complex reminiscent of a Sufi shrine,[6] with mosques, libraries, school, restaurants, and shops to merge into the fabric of the city.

The plan called for an avant-garde neo-futurist mausoleum mounted on an elevated platform in a neo-Mughal garden, with a central parabola and pointed edges at its six corners reaching out "in an exuberant motion towards the sky.

"[4] Following the 1958 coup of President Ayub Khan, who presented himself as a modernizer, the Whitfield-Squire proposal gained favor among the military elite, although public reception was not warm.

[3] The use of white marble to suggest purity, and pure geometric forms, are designed to portray Jinnah as a larger-than-life figure.

The one to the north, which is decorated with a series of black floral design at the base, belongs to Miss [Fatima Jinnah], Quaid-e-Azam's sister.

All these graves are made of Italian white marble, and they are of the box type, like the sarcophagus of Jinnah, placed on a triple base.

On 14 August 2017, Pakistan's Independence Day, it was used for paying a tribute to Jinnah through 3d projection mapping show by 3D illumination.