Staff at Pakistani websites otherwise used to reheating international coverage of the motherland as a bona fide news genre were a little surprised to find their Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb splashed all over USA Today on December 22. The American tabloid is known for its four-colour infographics and weather reports, not necessarily knowing where Pakistan is located on the map.
The 16-page Pakistan Special Report titled, ‘Pakistan Rising on New Foundations’ in ChatGPT house style capitalisation featured Muhammad Aurangzeb expounding on macroeconomic stabilisation, policy continuity, and export-led growth. And while he stressed Pakistan would not progress without economically including women who formed half the population, the special report featured only one of them, amid 15 Pakistani men. She’s not too hard to spot, though. Check the quarter page ad for basmati rice on page 13.
Instead of a byline, you’d find One World Media accompanied by a disclaimer in 80% gray text, saying, “This story is paid for by an advertiser. Members of the editorial and news staff of USA Today Network were not involved in the creation of this content”. One World Media, it turns out, is a creative agency that specialises in “elevating your content to a global stage”. Its thought leadership includes people with names out of a Danielle Steel novel (Fleur Coleman and Michael Joseph) from the dateline: Cayman Islands.
If you wanted to read the full sixteen pages, however, you’d have to exit USA Today’s site and go to a pdf nestled on OWM’s.
But none of this is a secret. Pakistan’s image is shaped by a mix of hired lobbying firms, politically aligned diaspora networks, and US institutions that amplify frames aligned with their own interests. The Pakistani government and its opposition, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, are both keen to get coverage.
For the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party’s coalition government, and the military leadership, the emphasis is on stability, strategic relevance, and a reset in Pakistan-US relations, particularly after May’s India-Pakistan conflict.
Read: Trump reiterates stopping Pakistan-India war, praises CDF Munir
The May 2025 India–Pakistan conflict was a four-day military confrontation involving missile strikes, armed drones, air operations and heavy fighting along both sides. India conducted standoff attacks inside Pakistan, while Pakistan responded with air defence, missile and drone operations. The crisis ended after US-led diplomatic intervention, exposing the escalation risks between the two nuclear-armed neighbours and marking a shift towards multi-domain warfare in South Asia.
On the other hand, PTI has been highlighting the incarceration of its founder and former prime minister Imran Khan, along with alleged human rights violations.
These two major streams compete on the Hill. “The first is the official Government of Pakistan-led effort to build stronger bilateral ties with the US,” said Uzair Younus, a foreign and economic policy analyst.
“This stream is led through the embassy and other official channels, including via lobbyists hired by the government, data for which is publicly available. The second is driven by PTI-aligned diaspora groups engaging US lawmakers and officials since Imran Khan’s ouster.”
The PTI-led stream focuses on highlighting authoritarianism and democratic backsliding and seeks international pressure, including calls for US intervention to secure Imran Khan’s release. “The engagement has not fundamentally shifted US policy,” Younus added, however. “But it has created media attention, which in many ways is precisely the objective.”
The symbolic gains can be ennumerated. Forty-four Democratic lawmakers wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio last month, urging targeted sanctions against Pakistani officials over what they described as escalating transnational repression and rights abuses. That same week, the military responded publicly. At a press conference in Rawalpindi, DG ISPR Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry accused Imran of promoting an anti-army narrative that threatened national security. “Freedom of expression cannot be used to undermine Pakistan’s security or defence,” he said, alleging Khan’s claims were being amplified by foreign actors.
The headlines of superlative-laden curated news coverage in Pakistan (“great” and “favourite”) were the surest proof that the money was well spent. “This has been a year of reappraisal and reset,” former foreign secretary and Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, Jauhar Saleem, told The Express Tribune. “The US has reassessed Pakistan’s defence potential, its role as a net security provider, and its broader economic and strategic relevance.”
Read More: Pakistan open to Gaza stabilisation force: Rubio
International scrutiny intensified in the second week when UN Special Rapporteur on torture Alice Jill Edwards warned that Khan’s detention conditions could amount to torture or inhuman treatment. By then, Imran Khan had spent over two and a half years in Adiala Jail for multiple cases. Mid-month, the campaign took a personal turn. His son Kasim Khan told Sky News that he and his brother planned to travel to Pakistan, claiming their father was being held in a “death cell.”
Days later, Kasim and Suleiman repeated similar claims in interviews with Mehdi Hasan and Mario Nawfal, while The Times and The Sunday Times quoted them describing their father’s treatment as barbaric.
“He’s in a death cell. What they are doing to my father is barbaric. They want to limit any kind of social interaction to break him mentally. It’s because he’s so popular they are doing all these things to him. They are scared of him.”- Imran Khan’s sons @Kasim_Khan_1999 and… pic.twitter.com/K0bsGGWAAX
— PTI (@PTIofficial) December 21, 2025
PTI-aligned voices worked hard to amplify delays in court proceedings, alleging repeated adjournments continued to restrict access for family members and lawyers. “Diaspora networks are active but polarised,” said Raza Rumi, policy analyst and journalist. “PTI-aligned groups are louder online while government-aligned actors work through formal channels. The impact remains largely symbolic.”
🚨INTERVIEW: “THE JUDGE IS DELAYING IMRAN KHAN’S VERDICT SO WE CAN’T SEE HIM IN JAIL”
“16th of October, the judge tells our lawyer that I’ll announce the judgment on Monday.
Next thing we know is that the date he gave was like three weeks away or four weeks away. It extended… https://t.co/F24CHM7wCh pic.twitter.com/mIbNFdxqxP
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) November 28, 2025
All of this has cost a pretty penny. “The December surge reflected coordinated agenda-setting, with op-eds, congressional letters, and briefings clustering around political flashpoints and human rights reporting cycles,” Rumi told The Express Tribune.
Also Read: Trump reiterates stopping Pakistan-India war, praises CDF Munir
According to filings submitted under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and published by the US Department of Justice, public disclosures show that Pakistan-linked entities committed at least $3 million in fixed lobbying and public affairs contracts during 2024 and 2025. FARA requires anyone lobbying or doing PR for a foreign government or entity to disclose their activities to ensure transparency in foreign influence on US policy and public opinion.
FARA filings reference a framework document outlining proposed US-Pakistan cooperation on rare earth minerals and critical metals, citing an indicative commercial value of up to USD 1 trillion, which aligns Islamabad’s economic pitch with Washington’s strategic priorities.
“Lobbying influences how Washington talks about a country, not necessarily what it does,” cautioned Rumi, however. “Structural shifts occur only when rights concerns align with a strategic recalibration.”
