With its roots dating back to the middle of the 2000s, the National Twenty20 Cup was established at a time when Twenty20 cricket was quickly gaining popularity all over the world. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) saw the potential of this format and decided to develop the event to offer players a structured platform on which they may adapt to the requirements of the shortest form of the game. Being one of the early supporters of a domestic Twenty20 tournament, Pakistan was one of the countries that hosted the first edition of the competition in 2005. As a result of this foresight, Pakistan's players have been provided with several opportunities to perfect their abilities in a competitive setting, which has contributed significantly to the country's constant dominance in international Twenty20 cricket.

In the beginning, the tournament's structure consisted of a combination of teams from different departments and regions. The PCB has been continuously refining and reorganizing the domestic circuit over the years, and the National Twenty20 Cup has developed in tandem with these developments. The major goal of these structural improvements has always been to improve the overall quality of cricket, to make the game more competitive, and to make it easier for players to make the transition from playing domestic cricket to playing international cricket.

A substantial structural revamp took place in 2019 when the PCB simplified the domestic cricket scene by lowering the number of regional teams and centralizing them under a new province format. This was the most important structural change that took place. Through the consolidation of talent, this move attempted to create teams that were more powerful and competitive, ultimately leading to an improvement in the general quality of play. Balochistan, Central Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Northern Sindh, and Southern Punjab are the six provincial teams that have become the key competitors in the National Twenty20 Cup as a result of this arrangement. This system guarantees that each team represents a prominent cricketing area of Pakistan, which in turn intensifies rivalries between rival teams from different regions and boosts interest from the local community.

Each team competes against every other team in the competition once during the round-robin league round, which is the standard format for the event. Teams are encouraged to play aggressive and dominating cricket by the fact that they are rewarded with points for victory, and extra points are often provided for victories that result in bonus points. After the league stage, the top clubs, which are typically the top four, are eligible to go to the semi-finals. All these elimination matches will eventually culminate in the grand final, which will be a competition between the two teams who have performed the best during the season for the National Twenty20 Cup trophy.

The event is held in several cities throughout Pakistan, including important cricketing centers such as Multan, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Lahore, and Faisalabad. The locations for the tournament are rotated periodically. Cricket fans from all across the nation will have the chance to watch the action unfold in real-time thanks to the game's widespread distribution, which also contributes to the game's promotion in various locations. There is a tremendous amount of variation in the playing conditions at these sites, ranging from the sluggish and twisting pitches of Karachi to the more pace-friendly grounds of Rawalpindi. This adds an element of difficulty and strategic complexity to the tournament. To offer players the opportunity to perform under pressure and comprehensively improve their Twenty20 talents, the present framework of the event is meant to produce constant high-quality cricket. As a result, the competition has become an essential component of Pakistan's cricketing calendar.