The Pakistan lobby in Washington is trying to expand, even as the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan deteriorates.
The leading Pakistani advocate in D.C. is Mark Siegel, at Locke Lord Bissell Liddell LLP. He’s working alongside teams led by former Republican Rep. Vin Weber at Clark Weinstock, and the PR experts at k-global, which is a subsidiary of National Strategies, a D.C.-based consulting firm. They’ve replaced a 2010 suit of lobbyists who are no longer working for Pakistani causes.
Paul Johnson, k-global’s CEO and a former vice chairman at Fleishman-Hillard, did not respond to inquires from TheDC.
Following the Abbottabad raid that successfully killed Osama bin Laden at his hideout deep inside Pakistan, “both sides have to reconstruct [U.S.-Pakistan] relations again,” said Shafqat Tanweer, who heads the New York-based Committee Supporting Democracy and Justice in Pakistan, and the U.S.-branch of the Pakistan People’s Party, which is run by the country’s president, Asif Ali Zardari.
Tanweer’s committee works with many groups of Pakistani-Americans who meet with U.S. legislators in D.C. and their home offices, he said. The groups — which reflect the bitter class and religious divisions within Pakistan — include the Association of Pakistani Physicians of America, the Pakistani-America Congress, and
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