The Higher Education Commission (colloquially known as HEC) is a statutory body formed by the Government of Pakistan which was established in 2002 under the Chairmanship of Atta-ur-Rahman.

[4] Education policy revised by Prime Minister of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan, the government established various universities and colleges in all over the country.

[8] In the 1960s, the financial policies and economic programs introduced by President of Pakistan Ayub Khan greatly emphasized to importance of higher education in the country.

[8] According to the calculations performed by the Statistics Division and published by Isani, around 430,000 students were enrolled in different universities to pursue their higher education over the fiscal period of 1960–65.

During this time, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had spent 70% of natural resources on higher education efforts; enrollment in the universities increased to 56%.

President Musharraf invited scientist and chemist Atta-ur-Rahman, who was Federal Minister of Science and Technology, to be its first chair, and immediately passed the Presidential Ordinance on 11 September 2002 to establish the Higher Education Commission.

[11] Over several years, the commission implemented its program of enhancing access, improving quality, and increased relevance of higher education to the needs and requirement of Pakistan.

[18] A task force was formed on "Technology Driven Knowledge Economy" that is chaired by the Prime Minister Imran Khan and has Atta-ur-Rahman as its Vice Chairman.

[21] As a result of the efforts of the Task Forces headed by Atta-ur-Rahman, the development budget of the Federal Ministry of Science and technology has been enhanced by over 600%, allowing a number of new projects to be undertaken.

There are eight foreign universities collaborating (three Austrian and five Chinese) to train the faculty, control quality, and eventually offer their degrees to selected students.

[34] The chairman is appointed by the Prime Minister for a four-year term based upon the requests and recommendations send by the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training.

Around 50%–70% of federal budget is set for the development on science and higher education, particularly distributed to the commission, highest in the financial history of Pakistan.

[42] German academic Wolfgang Voelter of Tübingen University in Germany over viewed the performance of commission under the leadership of Atta-ur-Rahman and described the reforms as "A miracle happened."

[44] American academic Fred M. Hayward has also praised the reform process undertaken by Pakistan, admitting that "since 2002, a number of extraordinary changes have taken place.

"[45] The commission instituted major upgrades for scientific laboratories, rehabilitating existing educational facilities, expanding the research support and overseeing the development of one of the best digital libraries in the region.

[45] Seeking to meeting the international standard, a quality assurance and accreditation process was also established, of which, ~95% of students sent abroad for training returned, an unusually high result for a developing country in response to improved salaries and working conditions at universities as well as bonding and strict follow-up by the commission, Fulbright and others.

"[46] The reforms brought about by Atta-ur-Rahman were also applauded by the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (UNCSTD) which reported that the "progress made was breath-taking and has put Pakistan ahead of comparable countries in numerous aspects.

"[47] In limited time, it established and provided free access to scientific literature by high-speed Internet for all universities, the upgrade of research equipment accessible across the country and the program of establishing new universities of science and technology, including science parks attracted the foreign investors, prove the efficiency and the long-term benefits for the country enabled.

[53] Nature, a leading science journal, has also written a number of editorials and articles about the transformation brought about in Pakistan in the higher education sector under the commission.

[58] The creation of commission has had a positive impact on higher education and research culture in Pakistan from 2002 to 2013 under the leaderships of both Atta-ur-Rahman and Javaid Laghari.

Among the objectives of this project a primary objective of introduction of Video Conferencing facility, launched by Atta-ur-Rahman, is to enhance students teachers interaction through distance learning, bridge the gap of good faculty, meet the shortage of faculty members at the universities located at far-flung areas and ultimately to uplift the standard of education in Pakistan.

In spite of its achievements, it was criticized by Pervez Hoodbhoy, a nuclear physicist and a professor at the Quaid-e-Azam University, who maintained that "commission have made higher education more expensive.

"[69][70] Another work on HEC's praise was authored by Mansoor Akbar Kundi, former Vice Chancellor of the Gomal University and later Executive Director of Higher Education Commission.

In his article entitled "Ata ur Rehman school of Thought" he has strongly supported the reforms brought about by the dynamic and focused policies of the Higher Education Commission under the leadership of Atta-ur-Rahman.

[70] During this ongoing debate, the then chairman, Javaid Laghari who was former technocrat Senator from Pakistan Peoples Party and President of a private university SZABIST as well, declared that the devolution of the commission unconstitutional.

Massive anti-Pakistan Peoples Party demonstration broke out in all over the country over this issue in 2011 and student unions gathered in the federal government installations to oppose the merger.

[75][77] Following a political appointment of Tariq Banuri as Chairman HEC in 2018, a large number of Higher Education programmes were stopped or severely curtailed, including international scholarships, research grants programme, and free access to scientific instrumentation,[78] with consequences that led to the removal of Banuri before his tenure ended and the appointment of Farooq Bazai as Acting Chairman.