Pakistan President
hired a PR Firm in Texas last year
Musharraf’s
Personal Lobbying, at Whose Cost?
By
Sahibzada Asim
HOUSTON:
“Team Barakat” is a public relations company located
in a small three-room office which is part of a huge floor with
about 40 other offices, mainly of lawyers and some doctors, in
building 3010 of Summit Towers, in the center of Houston’s
mini-downtown, Galleria.
The
distinction of this small office is that it is the Registered
Headquarter for public relations for the President of Pakistan,
General Pervez Musharraf.
According
to the US Justice Department Registration No 5466, under the Foreign
Agents Registration Act 1938, Team Barakat, a Turkish sounding
name, shows the “Office of President of Pakistan”
as its Client.
According
to this filing: "Consultants will provide strategic advice
to the client, interface with the US government officials and
congressional members and staff to facilitate and strengthen US-Pakistan
relationship."
Unbelievable
it may seem, but a Texas firm is performing this job for the President
of Pakistan but there are no US government officials and congressional
members and staff based in Texas, except the few who come to President
George W. Bush’s Texas Ranch whenever he is on vacation
in his home. Is this company going to lobby for Musharraf at Bush’s
ranch?
While
there was no sign of the Pakistani President in the Houston office
of TB, it is learnt the man behind the firm is an influential
Republican Gary Polland, representing his company Polland &
Cook. His job description is “to help smooth ties with the
US, to end US economic sanctions against Pakistan and bolster
trade and debt restructure.”
Polland
owns 37.5 percent of TB, a joint venture which was renamed Team
Eagle. The contract price is $180,000 which started a year ago
and was renewable for another two years. He provides only “advice,
recommendations, and meetings with key US policymakers.”
When
I tried to contact any responsible official of Team Barakat to
know about what they were doing to promote the President of Pakistan
in Houston, Texas, I was surprised. A “common” receptionist
(used by many offices on the same floor) first gave me an appointment
for October 31 at 4 p.m. When I arrived at the office, I was told
by the receptionist there was no one in the Team Barakat Office.
A sign said “We are closed”.
I
decided to pay a surprise visit on Friday, Nov 1 and succeeded
in entering the office as a person seeking services of Team Barakat
for my company. Linda, the only lady present in the office told
me the person who could discuss business was away in Turkey and
she knew nothing about President of Pakistan as a client of her
company. “We don’t have President Musharraf in our
records,” Linda said without going into any further details.
I
wanted to know what kind of services, being located in Houston,
Texas, could Team Barakat provide for the Pakistani President
and at what cost. She had no answers and it was not to expect
any from her.
The
office was a three-room small space, available on rent for a few
hundred dollars a month and with a capacity to accommodate 2 or
3 employees at the most. The office shared the fax and printer
with the main reception while all telephone calls were also received
by the receptionist and redirected to the office where they were
intended for.
“We
normally send newsletters, arrange events and write speeches for
our clients,” Linda told me when asked about the nature
of business done by her company.
I
left Linda and the Team Barakat office with more questions than
answers I could get about the public relations firm hired by Pakistan
in the US. Why does President Musharraf need a PR firm for his
own office? And why would this firm can’t or won’t
even have its own fax machine?
There
were no answers in the Summit Towers office of the new PR company,
which was the 4th to be discovered in a matter of weeks, being
paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to improve Pakistani President's
image in US.
Some
others recently known include: Registration No 5519. Client: Govt
of Pakistan, Sterling International Consulting Corp, 118 W. Ottawa,
Larsing, Michigan. It represents the Executive Branch of the Government
of Pakistan. Mr Ahmed Fayyaz Khan is the Coordinator. Ph: 92-51-9214948
Fax: 92-51-9203336.
Detailed
contract indicates that Sterling will "audit" the media
(i.e. provide clippings) and "organize" and "mobilize"
Pakistani community in the US. Sterling has announced that it
is being paid $600,000 per year, $50,000 per month for this contract.
Registration
No 5450 shows the client as the Embassy of Pakistan and is run
by Charlie Wilson, the long time friend of Pakistan. He is based
in 801 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW 730, Washington DC. He gets about
quarter of a million dollars a year.
The
latest company working for Pakistan is Rhoads-Weber Shandwick
which is lobbying on behalf of the Pakistan Human Development
Fund, formed by President Musharraf in June to improve the nation's
educational system and living standards by encouraging private/public
sector partnership.
Musharraf
is "patron-in-chief" of the Fund. Pakistan provided
$32 million in "seed money" and has received another
$2.5 million from local and expatriate Pakistanis. The Inter public
unit is trying to round up U.S. government money for the program.
A
key goal of the Fund is to assist the Government in setting up
government run schools in areas in which they do not exist. Religious
schools (madrassas) in Pakistan are said to be "incubators"
for the spread of radical Islam.
