Millions Being Spent on Zardari’s Lobbying

Shaheen Sehbai reported in The News that At least 11 big and small, known and unknown, lobbying companies have been hired by Pakistan and state-owned Pakistani organisations in the US, paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars every month, some of them having mysterious names and almost dubious credentials.

Although lobbying is a legal profession in Washington, the way it is conducted has earned it the nickname of “officially certified corruption” and what the Pakistan government, Pakistan Embassy and Pakistani organisations are doing may come close to this unofficial definition, analysts say.

The information about these lobbying firms is public record and is available on official websites of US government agencies and organisations. But somehow Pakistani clients of these lobbying firms have tried to camouflage their widely spread activities under different names and different categories so that at one time not more than two or three companies could be officially acknowledged as government lobbyists.
A confidential document showing the lobbying expenses being paid by Pakistani Government for lobbying of both Pakistan and Zardari’s government on tax payers expense.
Here is an interesting article from The Hill giving details on one of the lobbying firm working for Zardari’s interest.