PTI hires new media relations and lobbying firm in USA

LONDON: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) US leader Atif Khan has confirmed that the party has hired a new public relation and lobbying firm to monitor Pakistan general elections and to engage with the US and international media.

Atif, who was recently appointed PTI Core Committee member along with Sajjad Burki by former party founder Imran Khan, revealed this while speaking at an X (formerly Twitter) online session with Sher Afzal Marwat and Dr Moeed Pirzada. 

He has previously served as a member of Imran Khan Task Force and as a focal person for the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis during the PTI government.

Atif said PTI USA has signed a three months contract with a PR firm to monitor and observe elections in Pakistan — scheduled to take place on February 8, 2024. 

He said the PR firm will work with the mainstream US media to highlight any irregularities. 

He said: “In the last few days we have shared with the US media, human rights groups and observer groups the incidents of paper snatching, abductions, kidnappings and other rights violations. Our PR firm is working closely with 10 organisations.”

Atif said that, separately, a new lobbying firm has been hired for “election monitoring and human rights violations". 

“We have signed a contract with the lobbying firm. We are working closely through our overseas volunteer workers. We will make the happenings in Pakistan a worldwide news. Unfortunately, the US State Department sits on the fence when it comes to human rights violations in Pakistan.”

Speculation has grown whether the newly hired US-based PR firm and the lobbying group are behind Imran's article published in the Economist in which the former premier accused the US government and the Pakistani military of ousting him from power for his refusal to allow foreign bases inside Pakistan.

The PTI had previously hired an American consultancy firm headed by Robert Laurent Grenier, the ex-CIA station chief in Islamabad. 

While in power in July 2021, Robert Laurent Grenier’s firm called Grenier Consulting LLC was recruited to lobby for the party. 

The contract was signed secretly by PTI leader Iftikhar Durrani with the firm in July 2021 under the "supervision of senior party [PTI] officials and under the direction of Pakistan government officials” for $25,000 per month. 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Law and Justice Ministry said later on that the contract was signed without their involvement despite the fact that the dues in the contract were to be paid by the Government of Pakistan.

Grenier is a CIA veteran who worked as the spy agency's top counter-terrorism official from 2004 to 2006. He was also the CIA station chief in Islamabad during the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

After the removal of PTI government in April 2022, the PTI-USA Inc, a subsidiary of PTI, hired another lobbying firm Fenton/Arlook to provide "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."

The firm contacted hundreds of US and western media organisations and was able to secure several interviews for Imran Khan and news stories highlighting PTI’s narrative.