In the wee hours of April 10 this year, Imran Khan was removed as the prime minister of Pakistan after a dramatic no-confidence vote. The cricketer-turned-politician blamed foreign conspiracy for his ouster, even naming a US diplomat named Donald Lu .According to Khan, Lu had allegedly threatened the Pakistani ambassador in US that there would be implications if the former captain survived the trust vote.
Th workers of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf coined the slogan ‘Amreeka Ka jo Yaar hai, ghaddar hai (Those who are friends with US are traitors), a jibe directed at the incumbent Shehbaz Sharif government.
In a sudden somersault, the same PTI has now hired a lobbying firm for ‘good relations’ with the Biden administration.
According to documents being circulated on social media, the lobbying firm Fenton / Arlock LLC is being paid a handsome $25,000 per month to support the party’s ‘goals’ for good relations with the United States and the Pakistani diaspora in the US.
The documents have been unearthed by Uzair Younus, Director of the Pakistan Initiative at the South Asia Center. He said that Fenton/Arlock was also hired by the Pakistani embassy in the US in March this year for $30,000 a month, this when Imran Khan’s government was in power.
When confronted by PTI supporters who argued that the agreement involved the PTI USA and not the one based in Pakistan, Younus shared the screenshot of the document to strengthen his claim that the ‘the firm would support the goal of the PTI Pakistan for good relations with the United States and the Pakistani diaspora in the US.’
The registration statement presented to the Department of Justice says that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf USA does represent Pakistan.
“PTI USA is in certain instances directed by the foreign political party in Pakistan,” the statement said, adding that the public relations campaign will be carried out for six months.
