The Pakistan Football Federation under new elected body headed by presidentFaisal Saleh Hayat abolished the President's PFF Cup along with theNational Football Championship in 2004, as part of a league-first restructuring.[2][3] In 2005 the federation launched the National Football Challenge Cup, promoted in contemporary reports as an inaugural tournament and serving as the new national knockout competition.[4][5][6] In contrary to the departments-only format of the former President PFF Cup, the restructured Challenge Cup briefly admitted club sides in the preliminary stage before the seeded departments entered later rounds.[5][7]
Ahead of the event, the federation announced a format with five pre-seeded teams, WAPDA, KRL, Army, KPT and NBP, entering directly at the second stage.[5] The tournament was scheduled to kick off on 1 June, featuring 27 phase-one teams, a prize purse of Rs1 million, and matches staged in Peshawar, Wah, Lahore, Faisalabad, Karachi and Quetta.[7]
During the competition the second-stage venues were shifted, with Group I matches moved to Faisalabad and Group II to Rawalpindi’s Army Stadium.[8]
PTCL won the cup in August 2005, with strikerAdeel Ahmed finishing as leading scorer. The final at Rawalpindi Army Sports Complex was held under floodlights, with PFF president Faisal Saleh Hayat as chief guest.[9][10]
