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Washington State University's Pakistan Project was one of over seventy similar projects which were carried out throughout the world by American land-grant colleges under contract to the United States Agency for International Development, its predecessor agencies, and the various host countries. One of the longest running, the WSU project first came under consideration in 1952, was contracted for and implemented in 1954 and continued active under several successive contracts until 1972. Initially the project consisted of a series of broad ranging advisory services to the University of the Punjab at Lahore; after 1961 the emphasis changed to the development of the new West Pakistan Agricultural University at Lyallpur. With the completion of the Lyallpur project in 1969, a new contract was negotiated to continue certain technical projects at WPAU until 1971 after which the project was terminated.

The organization and methods of the WSU Pakistan Project changed considerably between 1954 and 1971 as experience brought about increasing sophistication. What was at the beginning essentially an educational "exchange" program eventually was to become a concerted effort to apply subtle theories of public administration and economic development. Evolving from this experience was an arrangement which structured the project into several sub-projects, such as agricultural economics, plant pathology, genetics and rural sociology. Lead by various staff members from WSU and other American universities, these sub- projects brought together students, equipment, literature and staff at the two Pakistani nationals at various American universities with the intention of their returning to control these sub-projects. The over-all project was headed in Pakistan by a Chief of Party who was the executive officer for the entire project. In the United States, the contract was administered by the Office of Campus Coordinator essentially serving a staff office, preparing budgets, keeping records, making reports and overseeing the Pakistani participants attending American universities. Some evaluation of the workings success and shortcomings of the program can be found in Theodore E. Doty's Washington State University in West Pakistan 1954-1969: An Evaluation of Technical Assistance to Higher Education for Agricultural and Economic Development, a WSU doctoral dissertation in Agricultural Economics written by one-time Campus Coordinator of the Pakistan Project (1971).