Staff at Pakistani websites, accustomed to reheating international coverage of the homeland as a genuine news genre, were a little surprised to find their finance minister, Muhammad Aurangzeb, splashed throughout. USA today on December 22. The American tabloid is known for its four-color infographics and weather reports, without necessarily knowing where Pakistan is on the map.
The 16-page Pakistan Special Report titled ‘Pakistan rises on new foundations’ in ChatGPT house-style capitalization featured Muhammad Aurangzeb expounding on macroeconomic stabilization, policy continuity and export-led growth. And although it stressed that Pakistan would not progress without economically including women, who made up half of the population, the special report featured only one of them, among 15 Pakistani men. It’s not too difficult to spot though. See the quarter-page ad for basmati rice on page 13.
Instead of a byline, you’ll find One World Media accompanied by a disclaimer in 80% gray text that reads: “This story is paid for by an advertiser. Members of the USA Today Network news and editorial staff were not involved in the creation of this content.” It turns out that One World Media is a creative agency that specializes in “elevating your content to a global stage.” Its intellectual leadership includes people with names taken from a Danielle Steel novel (Fleur Coleman and Michael Joseph) of the date: Cayman Islands.
However, if you wanted to read the entire sixteen pages, you would have to leave the USA Today site and go to a pdf located on OWM.
But none of this is a secret. Pakistan’s image is shaped by a mix of contract lobbying firms, politically aligned diaspora networks, and US institutions that amplify frames aligned with their own interests. Both the Pakistani government and its opposition, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, are eager to gain coverage.
For the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-Pakistan People’s Party coalition government, and for military leaders, the emphasis is on stability, strategic relevance and a reset of Pakistan-U.S. relations, particularly after May’s India-Pakistan conflict.
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The May 2025 India-Pakistan conflict was a four-day military confrontation that included missile strikes, armed drones, air operations and intense fighting on both sides. India carried out standoff attacks inside Pakistan, while Pakistan responded with air defense, missile and drone operations. The crisis ended after a US-led diplomatic intervention, which exposed the risks of escalation between the two nuclear-armed neighbors and marked a shift towards multi-domain warfare in South Asia.
On the other hand, the PTI has been highlighting the imprisonment of its founder and former Prime Minister Imran Khan, along with alleged human rights violations.
These two main currents compete on the Hill. “The first is the official effort led by the Government of Pakistan to build stronger bilateral ties with the United States,” said Uzair Younus, a foreign and economic policy analyst.
“This stream is conducted through the embassy and other official channels, including through government-hired lobbyists, whose data is publicly available. The second is driven by PTI-aligned diaspora groups involving US lawmakers and officials since the overthrow of Imran Khan.”
The PTI-led movement focuses on highlighting authoritarianism and democratic backsliding and seeks international pressure, including calls for US intervention to secure the release of Imran Khan. “The compromise has not fundamentally changed American policy,” Younus added, however. “But it has generated media attention, which in many ways is precisely the goal.”
Token gains can be listed. Forty-four Democratic lawmakers wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio last month, urging him to impose targeted sanctions against Pakistani officials for what they described as an escalation of transnational repression and rights abuses. That same week, the military responded publicly. Addressing a press conference in Rawalpindi, DG ISPR Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry accused Imran of promoting an anti-army narrative that threatened national security. “Freedom of expression cannot be used to undermine the security or defense of Pakistan,” he said, alleging that foreign actors were amplifying Khan’s claims.
The headlines of superlative news coverage in Pakistan (“great” and “favorite”) were the surest proof that the money was well spent. “This has been a year of reassessment and reset,” said former Pakistani Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to the United States Jauhar Saleem. The express PAkGazette. “The United States has reassessed Pakistan’s defense potential, its role as a network security provider, and its broader economic and strategic relevance.”
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International scrutiny intensified in the second week when the 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 more than two and a half years in Adiala jail for multiple cases. In the middle of the month, the campaign took a personal turn. His son Kasim Khan said News from heaven that he and his brother were planning to travel to Pakistan, claiming that 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 Sunday weather He quoted them describing his father’s treatment as barbaric.
“He’s in a death cell. What they’re doing to my father is barbaric. They want to limit any type of social interaction to break him mentally. It’s because he’s so popular that they’re doing all these things to him. They’re afraid of him.” – Imran Khan’s children @Kasim_Khan_1999 and… pic.twitter.com/K0bsGGWAAX
-PTI (@PTIofficial) December 21, 2025
Voices aligned with the PTI worked hard to amplify delays in court proceedings, claiming that repeated postponements continued to restrict access for family members and lawyers. “Diaspora networks are active but polarized,” Rumi said. “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 THAT WE CAN’T SEE HIM IN JAIL”
“On October 16, the judge tells our lawyer that I will announce the sentence on Monday.
The next thing we know, the date he gave was about three or four weeks away. It spread… pic.twitter.com/mIbNFdxqxP
– Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) November 28, 2025
All this has cost a lot of money. “The December surge reflected coordinated agenda-setting, with op-eds, letters to Congress and briefings clustered around political flashpoints and human rights reporting cycles,” said Raza Rumi, a policy analyst and journalist. The express PAkGazette.
Also read: Trump reiterates the end of the war between Pakistan and India and praises CDF Munir
According to filings filed under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and published by the US Department of Justice, public disclosures show that entities linked to Pakistan committed at least $3 million in permanent lobbying and public affairs contracts during 2024 and 2025. FARA requires anyone who lobbies or does public relations for a foreign government or entity to disclose their activities to ensure transparency of influence. foreign policy and public opinion in the United States
The FARA filings reference a framework document outlining proposed US-Pakistan cooperation on rare earth minerals and critical metals, citing an indicative trade value of up to $1 trillion, aligning Islamabad’s economic tone with Washington’s strategic priorities.
“The lobby influences how Washington talks about a country, not necessarily what it does,” Rumi warned, however. “Structural changes occur only when rights concerns are aligned with a strategic recalibration.”
