Better late than never

Reports that Pakistan is seeking to hire lobbyists to make its case in Washington are welcome. It has been almost eight years since a lobby group was last engaged and much has changed, mostly for the worse, in that time. With bilateral relations currently in the freezer, on hold or sliding downhill depending on where one looks in a complex and changing picture, having lobbyists on board makes practical sense. However good — or indifferent — the ambassador, lobbying is not his job. The incumbent Jalil Abbas Jilani is a seasoned career diplomat and a safe pair of hands as far as the current dispensation is concerned, but the sometimes murky world of professional lobbying is beyond his purview.

Lobbyists tread where diplomats cannot. They are the arm-twisters, the cajolers, the ones who manage to put a gloss on the roughest of surfaces — and India, our archrival, is adept at their deployment. Lobbyists reach around corners; catch the ears of senators and Congressmen and women on committees that have an interest in matters Pakistani and curry favour where it otherwise may not exist. Pakistan has an image problem to put it mildly, and not just in the US, and lobbyists may be able to adjust the prism through which we are viewed by others. It is impossible to know whether having lobbyists plead our case on the collapsed F16 deal would have made much difference but it is not implausible either, and we may be sure that Indian lobbyists were busy whispering in influential ears and not to our betterment. As to exactly why the use of lobbyists was allowed to lapse, there is little clarity — at least in the public domain. The current dispensation and Nawaz Sharif specifically, likes to keep things very close to their chest. Lobbyists are loyal to whoever pays them and have none of the ties that bind the civil service or career politicians. They have a degree of independence, of thought and action that may not play to the comfort zone of some — but anyway, better late than never.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2016.

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