Late Dr. Abdul Hafiz ex Director, FAO East Regional Project on Field Food Crops on the incentive from the National Talent Pool of Ministry of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis in 1983, conducted an extensive tour of different institutions to assess the state of affairs of Plant Pathology, its teaching and research throughout the country and gave an eye opening account reflecting on merits and handicaps of the plant pathological research underway at different universities and institutions of the country. Besides various financial and administrative problems, he emphatically pointed out the lack of dynamic research leadership for conducting meaningful collaborative research, non-availability of scientific literature and essential facilities, duplication of research activities and lack of research management and cooperation at institutional and national levels. Taking into account the growing needs of the country in plant pathology as pointed out by Dr. Hafiz, it was considered necessary to invite plant pathologists from all over the country to provide a common platform, so as to discuss various ways and means of improving the quality of research and teaching which may ultimately help in solving many national plant disease problems.
As a first step, 32 plant pathologists from the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Ayub Agriculture Research Institute, Nuclear Institute of Agriculture and Biology, Faisalabad and Pakistan Central Cotton Institute, Multan convened a meeting on December 20, 1983, chaired by Dr. A. H. Khan, Ex-Director, Advanced Studies and Research, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad and renowned forest pathologist. This meeting lead to the establishment of Pakistan Phytopathology Society. Late Dr. A. Sattar, the pioneer plant pathologist of Pakistan, was unanimously nominated the first president of the society and Late Dr. Abdul Hafiz was the first Chief Editor of its Journal.
After the death of Dr. A. Sattar, Dr.J. H. Mirza became the next president and Editor-in-Chief, of PJP. His tenure was from 1991 to 1997. After Dr. Mirza, Dr. S. M. Khan was elected president in 1998. While Dr. Ahmad Saleem Akhtar, our present president, took over the charged PPS in 2004. The Pakistan Journal of Phytopathology and Newsletter are official regular publications of the society. With the Grace of God Almighty and cooperation of fellow scientists, this society is not only with representatives from all over the world, the standard of Pakistan Journal of Phytopathology is not less than that of any International Journal, with International editorial board and abstracting by international abstracting agencies CABI-UK, BIOSIS-USA, AGRINDEX-FAO, Moreover, this society is good example of self-sustaining, cooperation and unity of Plant Pathologists.