Introduced in 1979 to offer nationwide competition to departmental selections and armed forces teams excluded from the National Football Championship, the event was named as Inter Departmental Championship. However, due to internal conflicts within the PFF, the second edition occurred only in 1984 and was rebranded as the Inter Provincial Championship.[1] Although the four provincial teams were allowed to participate, they were not factored into the final ranking in both the 1984 and 1985 tournaments. Only since 1990 has the tournament been held regularly, albeit undergoing frequent name changes.[1]
Although it is an annual competition, it has not been held on a few occasions. The competition was not held from (1980–83, 1986, 1988–89, 1995, 1997, 2004, 2006–07, 2017, 2021–22).[1]
The possibility of unlikely victories in the earlier rounds of the competition, where lower ranked teams beat higher placed opposition in what is known as a "giant killing", is much anticipated by the public. Such upsets are considered an integral part of the tradition and prestige of the competition, and the attention gained by giant-killing teams can be as great as that for winners of the cup.
In 2009, non-league side Sindh Government Press defeated top-flight National Bank 3–2 in group stages.[2] In 2011, second-division club Ashraf Sugar Mills defeated Pakistan Premier League winners WAPDA F.C. 1–0, and they repeated the feat again in the group stages, defeating National Bank from Pakistan Premier League 2–0, as they finished top of the group.[3] In 2012, second-division side Pakistan Public Work Department defeated Pakistan Air Force 2–0 in group stages. In 2013, Pak Afghan Clearing defeated league winners and defending championsKhan Research Laboratories 2–1. At the 2023–24 PFF National Challenge Cup, Higher Education Commission, an ad-hoc team of players from different universities and colleges around Pakistan defeated Khan Research Laboratories at the quarterfinals by 1–0 at the stoppage time.
