Benazir hired top US lobbyist, PR firm to boost her image

Once billed as the most corrupt politician of Pakistan by the US administration, Benazir Bhutto is now being praised all over the US, particularly by the US Congress and the media there; thanks to expensive lobbyists and PR firms that former Pakistan Prime Minister hired.Benazir courted lawmakers, elite media and think tanks by putting to use over 300,000 dollars of her hard earned money in just half a year.

Islamabad, Sep 2 : Once billed as the most corrupt politician of Pakistan by the US administration, Benazir Bhutto is now being praised all over the US, particularly by the US Congress and the media there; thanks to expensive lobbyists and PR firms that former Pakistan Prime Minister hired.Benazir courted lawmakers, elite media and think tanks by putting to use over 300,000 dollars of her 'hard earned' money in just half a year.

She hired a top lobbying firm, BKSH and Associates, to woo the influential sections of the US and is the only opposition leader of the world who is client of the US' most expensive lobbyist.

BKSH and Associates, is a company headed by Charlie Black, a top Republican strategist and former advisor to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush.

The campaign has Democratic connections as well, since Mark Penn, a top advisor to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, is president of Penn Schoen and CEO of Burson-Marsteller.

Soon after she signed the contract with the firm, "campaign material was developed and op-eds and white papers were circulated."

The lobbying firm was given the task to promote her party's views to members of Bush administration; the US Congress, think tanks such as Brooking Institution and the American Enterprise Institute; business elites and members of the media in Washington, New York, the UK, and Brussels; and Pakistani expatriates living in the US.

The firm also plans as to how to initiate a broad public affairs campaign, contact administration officials and members of Congress and arrange Bhutto's dinners for select individuals.

The campaign, according to a US journal, The Hill that monitors lobby activities, also focused on the press by scheduling editorial board meetings for Bhutto with The New York Times and The Washington Post and 'targeting top journalists' like Newsweek's Fareed Zakria and NYT's Tom Friedman.

Bhutto's hiring of lobbying firms in the US was confirmed by her spokesperson Farhatullah Babar, the News reported.

The lobbying firm's other clients range from the Governments of Taiwan and Haiti to companies such as General Electric, and seldom has opposition parties on its client list.

Apart from this, Benazir hired another firm, T. Dean Reed, which has taken roughly 70,000 dollars, since October 2004 to represent the Pakistan Peoples' Party in Washington.

ANI