At the 2011 Pan Arab Games, the athletics events are currently being held at Khalifa Stadium in Doha, Qatar from 15 to 20 December. A total of 45 events are to be contested, comprising 23 men's events and 22 for female athletes. The track and field events took place within the stadium while the half marathon was contested on a specially-designed course around the Aspire Zone. The shorter track events have a two-round format with qualifying heats and a final race, while the long-distance races and throwing events are contested in a straight final format with no qualifying rounds. In addition to the elite level programme, a total of 30 para-athletics events were contested between athletes with a disability on 21 and 22 December, comprising 25 men's events and five women's events.

At the 2007 Pan Arab Games, the athletics events were held at the Military Academy Stadium in Cairo, Egypt from 21 to 24 November. A total of 46 events were contested, of which 23 by male and 23 by female athletes. Morocco was the most successful nation in the competition, taking ten gold medals in a 23-medal haul. Sudan and Tunisia won the second and third greatest number of golds with 8 and 7. The host country, Egypt, achieved six gold medals but also shared the joint highest total medal count with Morocco. Seven Games records were beaten at the 2007 edition of the event.