By Arun Kumar
Washington(IANS) : The Pakistani government has deployed a team of lobbyists at the US Congress to contain the fallout from President Pervez Musharraf’s imposition of emergency rule, according to a publication focussing on Capitol Hill.
With Congressional Democrats and the Bush administration reviewing US aid to Pakistan, “The focus is on the Hill right now,” said The Politico, citing Mark Tavlarides, a former national security aide in the Clinton administration.
His firm, Van Scoyoc Associates, is paid $55,000 a month by the Musharraf government — a significant boost from the $40,000 the firm earned before July, it said.
Congressional Democrats may want to be more punitive towards the authoritarian regime than the Bush administration as they review the $845 million in foreign aid the administration has requested for Pakistan next year.
The Pakistani government — and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto — have lined up some of the capital’s top lobbying talent, ensuring that the struggle for power in Islamabad will have a Washington front, The Politico said.
As Musharraf moved to stifle dissent in recent months, his backers and opponents alike have marshalled Washington’s lobbying community on their behalf, it said.
Just last month, the Pakistani embassy hired Cassidy & Associates for a whopping one-year, $1.2 million contract. Heading the account is Robin Raphel, a former assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs in the Clinton administration.
The firm declined to comment on its lobbying activities on behalf of the embassy but The Politico cited Tavlarides as saying he is “basically trying to get reactions from members of the Congress about the state of emergency. The embassy recognises that Congress is a coequal branch of government in shaping US policy towards Pakistan”.
At the top of the Pakistan government’s worry list is that it will lose American foreign aid, which has totalled some $10 billion since the Sep 11, 2001 attacks, most of it military.
The government’s lobbyists “have to walk a fine line. Lots of members are upset about this”, said a Democratic congressional aide cited by The Politico. “The administration will figure out some spigots to remove or delay to signal that we are not happy with them,” said the aide.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) led by Bhutto, has retained public relations giant Burson-Marsteller and its affiliates, the lobbying firm BKSH & Associates, and the polling firm Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates.
The firm declined comment on its activities for which it is charging an initial $75,000, to be followed by monthly payments of $28,500, The Politico said.
The contract filed with the US Justice Department does, however, give some insight into what all that money buys.
Among the promised services: surveys of “100 American political, journalistic, and business elites in Washington, DC, and New York”, an “internal brainstorming session”, and setting up meetings for Bhutto in Washington “with an eye towards convincing US officials that prime minister Bhutto is still relevant to further the democratic process in Pakistan”.
It remains unclear exactly what Bhutto is seeking, said a Democratic congressional aide working on Pakistan issues cited by The Politico. Her lobbyists’ arguments were “less harsh than I thought they might be”, said the aide, speculating on rumours that Bhutto may be trying to cut a power-sharing deal with Musharraf.