The National Commission on Historical and Cultural Research, now National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, Centre of Excellence, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, headed by Chairman/Director was established in December 1973.

It is an autonomous organization and is administered and controlled by a Board of Governors chaired by the Vice-Chancellor, Quaid-i-Azam University, and includes, among others, competent historians and scholars from different parts of the country.

The Institute possesses a well-stocked up-to-date library on the above mentioned and other allied subjects. Besides a collection of about 25,000 books, its holdings include a vast variety of Government of India Gazettes, old files of pre-independence newspapers and cassettes and tapes of recorded interviews with various political figures involved in the struggle for Pakistan. It attracts a large number of researchers and scholars from far and wide every year.

The Institute has so far published more than 115 titles in English, Urdu and Persian. Some of these works have seen more than one edition.

The Institute has also been bringing out regularly two bi-annual journals, namely Pakistan Journal of History and Culture (English) recognized by the Higher Education Commission and the Majallah-e-Tarikh wa Saqafat Pakistan (Urdu) for the last several years.

Among the most important academic events organized by the Institute so far mention may be made of Seminar on