Putin Gets Chinese Plaudits for Calling Pelosi Trip ‘Planned Provocation’

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  Putin Gets Chinese Plaudits for Calling Pelosi Trip ‘Planned Provocation’ Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, China, February 4, 2022. A senior Chinese Communist Party official publicly praised Vladimir Putin after the Russian leader criticized Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent Taiwan visit as “a carefully planned provocation.” Beijing’s show of support for Putin follows the recent  announcement  of joint Sino-Russian military exercises on Russian territory. Putin made his first public remarks on the heightened tensions in the Taiwan Strait during a global-security conference in Moscow earlier this week. “The American adventure in Taiwan wasn’t just a trip by an irresponsible politician. It was part of a deliberate and conscious U.S. strategy intended to destabilize the situation and create chaos in the region and the entire world, a blatant demonstration of disrespect for another country’s sovereignty and its own international
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Imran Khan's PTI Hires Lobbying Firm for 'Good Relations' With US, Pakistani Diaspora

Imran Khan's PTI Hires Lobbying Firm for 'Good Relations' With US, Pakistani Diaspora

By: Manoj Gupta

CNN-News18

Last Updated: AUGUST 12, 2022, 11:07 IST

Islamabad, Pakistan


In recent years, Pakistan has engaged a dozen lobbying firms in the US to lobby with American politicians on a range of issues from criticising India to seeking aids and grants. (Reuters File) 

Former prime minister Imran Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has hired a lobbying firm in Washington DC at a cost of $25,000 per month to support its “goals for good relations with the United States and the Pakistani diaspora in the US”.

According to documents viral on social media, PTI has engaged Fenton/Arlock LLC, which was also hired by the Pakistan Embassy in United States in March 2022 for $30,000 a month.

The documents were unearthed by Uzair Younus, Director of the Pakistan Initiative at the South Asia Center. Younus also shared a link to where the documents are publicly available on a US website.

When he was confronted by PTI supporters that the agreement involves the PTI USA and not the PTI Pakistan, he shared a screenshot of the document to corroborate his claim that the firm would support the goal of the PTI Pakistan for good relations with the United States and the Pakistani diaspora in the US.

In recent years, Pakistan has engaged a dozen lobbying firms in the US to lobby with American politicians on a range of issues from criticising India to seeking aids and grants.

Media outlets have reported how these firms allegedly helped build an anti-India narrative and made attempts to influence the Democrats on issues ranging from Kashmir to minority rights in India.

“Pakistan’s government has hired Stephen Payne and Brian Ettinger of Linden Government Solutions to lobby on its behalf, according to a disclosure filing. The duo previously lobbied for Pakistan during President George W Bush’s administration," claimed a report published last year in European media outlet Politico.

Apart from this, a former congressional liaison for former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign who later lobbied the administration on behalf of then-Congolese President Joseph Kabila is now representing Pakistani interests in the US, reported news agency PTI.

Adnan Jalil has registered his firm Alpha Strategies as a lobbyist for the Council on Pakistan Relations, a nonprofit started by Michigan-based Pakistani-American healthcare entrepreneurs Mohammad Ashraf Qazi, Adil Jamal Akhtar and Iqbal Abdul Nasir.

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