[7] These government entities primarily used investment in sports as evidence of their Corporate Social Responsibility, with little incentive to develop talent or professionalise their set-ups.

[10][11] WAPDA became the inaugural champions, thanks to the prolific scoring of their striker Arif Mehmood, with Army finishing second and KRL third.

[11] Despite the revamp and introduction of the Pakistan Premier League in 2004, the domestic setup remained under severe criticism due to the precarious and unprofessional conditions and setup, and continuous domination of departments in the domestic competition, which poached talented players from clubs without any transfer fees or compensation involved.

[6][13] The teams essentially survived on their department sport budgets, with the players sidelined as permanent employees than as professional footballers.

[13] In stark contrast, the Karachi Football League, despite being a regional parallel competition, routinely attracted healthy audiences with the highlight being the 2008–09 final between Shahzad Mohammadan and Nazimabad FC where a huge crowd of over 18,000 witnessed the match at the KMC Stadium.

[13] The league was suspended in 2015 due to the Pakistan Football Federation crisis,[14][15] until the lift on suspension by FIFA on 13 March 2018.

Faisal Saleh Hayat-led Pakistan Football Federation, which was internationally recognised, started the league and non-FIFA recognised Ashfaq Hussain Shah group, which formed a parallel PFF, coming into power by third-party interference through the PFF elections conducted by the Supreme Court a month before the termination of the season completed the event.

[17][18][19] After the suspension once again from all football activities by FIFA on 7 April 2021,[20][21] the 2021–22 season was initially organised by the Ashfaq Hussain Shah group, who again came to power after attacking and taking charge of the PFF office.

[28][29] As of July 2023 however, few departments reportedly remained active in football,[30] and since then became restricted to the PFF National Challenge Cup.

[31][32] The upcoming season is expected to include only club sides, excluding the departmental teams which would not be able to take part from now on.

[33] However following the controversial tenure of the interim normalisation committee installed by FIFA, reportedly a parallel short-term franchise based league has also been discussed.

The PFF oversees all aspects of the league and makes unilateral decisions over any changes to the format, funding and sponsorship.