In April 1979 the NIHCR was made a constituent Institute of the Quaid-i-Azam University and renamed as National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research. In March 1981, it was transferred to the Islamic University and renamed as Institute of Islamic History, Culture and Civilization. The Institute remained with the Islamic University till June 1983. Realizing that the Islamic University was not the proper place for the Institute, the President of Pakistan, on the initiative of the Rector of the Islamic University/Minister of Education approved its retransfer to the Quaid-i-Azam University. Ministry of Education approved the retransfer in August 1983. In 1995 the NIHCR was transferred to the Ministry of Culture. On 27-1-1997 the Caretaker cabinet decided that it may be retransferred to the Quaid-i-Azam University. In pursuance of this decision the Culture Division vide their decision in August 1998 transferred it to the Quaid-i-Azam University. This was followed by Ministry of Education’s decision in May 2000 to redesignate it as a Centre of Excellence in History and Culture of the Ministry of Education situated at the Quaid-i-Azam University.   The purpose and the objectives of the Institute are:   To assess and examine the needs and requirements of research in the history and culture of the Muslims of South Asia, Muslim Freedom Movement and the Islamic State of Pakistan; To identify areas or aspects in these fields and conduct research thereon;

To seek, acquire, publish and preserve source material (private papers newspapers, rare books, documents and pamphlets, etc.) relevant to the above fields; To arrange interviews with important persons who can recall significant incidents relating to the two fields mentioned above and to preserve a record of such conversations for current and further use by historians and scholars;   To publish a bi-annual Journal of high academic quality;   To sponsor and commission scholarly works by persons not on the staff of the Institute;   To reprint (with some editorial annotations) major and minor classics relating to the two fields mentioned at above which are now completely unavailable or are very scarce;   To make provision for research and advisory services and with these objectives enter into agreements with other institutions or with public bodies under prescribed conditions;   To co-operate with International Research Bodies in respect of history and culture;   To study History and Culture of Pakistan in wider context of Central Asian and neighboring countries.