LONDON/ISLAMABAD: An deal was made by a prominent American-Pakistani supporter of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) with LGS LLC, a US lobbying business led by Stephen Payne, an American lobbyist who previously worked for former military dictator Pervez Musharraf in 2001.
According to documents made public to The News, well-known Pakistani-American supporter of the PTI Fayaz Quireshi of Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FDP) initially contracted the Washington, DC-based lobbying company LGS LLC for a 45-day period, starting on January 16, 2024, and ending on March 1, 2024. $50,000 will be paid to the company for its services; of that amount, $35,000 has already been sent to it in two installments on January 11 and January 17.
In 2001, Stephen Payne was a lobbyist for Musharraf as well. He has been hired by Quireshi to represent it in meetings with congressional offices. The lobbying firm will work to raise congressional awareness of the problems that PTI party members in Pakistan are currently and formerly suffering.
According to a PTI USA source, Quireshi is a doctor who engaged the lobbying business to “raise awareness about human rights abuses in Pakistan and to campaign against the state oppression to get the US government to get tough on Pakistan” at the request of PTI leadership in Pakistan.
In its submission, Friends of Democratic Pakistan informed the US authorities that FDP is employing a lobbyist in order to support PTI Pakistan.
As its objective is to serve the interests of PTI, a political party from Pakistan, it states that FDP’s “work may benefit a foreign political party.” According to documents, Quireshi’s group of US citizens of Pakistani descent is funding the lobbying.
The agreement to lobby Stephen Payne was inked a few days after Imran Khan again accused the US government of orchestrating his downfall through a conspiracy orchestrated by US diplomat Donald Lu via General Bajwa.
PTI has come under fire for allegedly paying US lobbyists to support it in its fight against the very government it claims is stealing its power, particularly in light of Imran Khan’s statements to his supporters that he is working to free Pakistan from US influence.
Stephen Payne, the most recent lobbyist for PTI, is a Republican who previously worked for Pervez Musharraf’s dictatorship, just after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Payne was seen on camera offering to set up a meeting between a politician from Kazakhstan and senior Bush administration officials in return for a sizeable payment to the presidential library fund. Payne was among numerous Bush allies who formed Team Eagle, a company that in October signed a $180,000-per-year deal with the Musharraf government.
FARA documents further state that the company was known as Team Barakat.
In a 21 January 2006 letter, Musharraf expressed gratitude to Payne’s Worldwide Strategies. “It gives me great pleasure to thank you for playing such an important role in strengthening US Pakistan ties,” Musharraf said to Payne in a letter. You were essential to our relationship throughout the difficult times both of our nations faced following September 11th.
It is significant to remember that three weeks prior, PTI US leader Atif Khan had announced that the organization had brought on a new PR and lobbying agency to cover Pakistan’s general elections and work with American and foreign media.
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan recently named Atif and Sajjad Burki to the PTI Core Committee. According to Atif, the PTI USA has entered into a three-month agreement with a public relations agency to oversee and record the upcoming elections in Pakistan, which are set for February 8, 2024. According to him, the PR company will collaborate with US mainstream media to draw attention to any anomalies.
A new lobbying firm has been recruited for “election monitoring and human rights violations,” according to Atif, who made this announcement separately. “We have a contract with the lobbying firm,” he declared. Through our international volunteer workforce, we are actively collaborating. We shall bring the events in Pakistan to the attention of the globe.
Regrettably, the US State Department takes no stance on Pakistan’s breaches of human rights.
An American consulting firm led by former CIA station commander in Islamabad, Robert Laurent Grenier, was previously engaged by the PTI. The party hired Robert Laurent Grenier’s company, Grenier Consulting LLC, to handle lobbying while it was in power in July 2021. Iftikhar Durrani secretly signed a $25,000 monthly contract with the firm in July 2021, stating that he would be working under the “supervision of senior [PTI] party officials and under the direction of Pakistan government officials.” Even though the contract’s dues were to be paid in full, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Law and Justice later stated that they were not involved in the contract’s signing.
Grenier is a former CIA agent who led the agency’s counterterrorism unit from 2004 until 2006.
In 2001, when the United States invaded Afghanistan, he was also in charge of the CIA station in Islamabad. PTI-USA Inc., a PTI subsidiary, hired Fenton/Arlook, a different lobbying firm, to handle “public relations services, including but not limited to distributing information to and briefing journalists, placing articles and broadcasts, arranging interviews with representatives or supporters of PTI, advising on social media efforts and other such public relations services,” following the removal of the PTI government in April 2022.
After contacting hundreds of US and western media outlets, the company was successful in getting Imran Khan to participate in multiple interviews and news pieces that emphasized the PTI’s story.
