Pakistan’s Lobbying Wars in D.C.:
Bhutto’s Widower Goes on Hiring Spree

To win over the Bush administration, the Pakistan People’s Party has chosen a time-worn strategy: Hire more lobbyists.

The party, led by Benazhir Bhutto’s widower, Asif ali Zardari, which belongs to a coalition that overwhelmingly defeated the party of Pakistan’s unpopular leader Pervez Musharaff last month, recently retained Locke Lord Strategies to lobby the White House and Congress on their behalf.

Among their tasks: “To promote the democratic transition of Pakistan, and to encourage the international investigation of the assassination of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto,” according to an agreement filed with the Justice Department on March 7, 2008.

They join Burston-Marsteller, the lobbying shop led by Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist Mark Penn, which has repped the party for $28,500 a month since January 1, 2007.

But they’re completely outgunned by Musharaff’s million-dollar-plus army of lobbyists, which consists of Dewey & LeBouef ($50,000 a month), Cassidy & Associates ($100,000 a month) and Ogilvy Public Relations ($45,000 a month).

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