Sajjad Burki & Atif Khan: $2m donations, lobbying firms, USA campaigns in Imran Khan’s name

Theresa Davidson

By Monitoring Desk

WASHINGTON: The Pakistan Tehreek-Insaaf (PTI) USA head and Imran Khan’s advisor Sajjad Burki received a whopping $1.8 million in donations but only sent $30,000 back home in Pakistan, according to an investigation.

PTI in the past has engaged multiple lobbying firms in US for at least a decade, particularly to promote its agenda and engage with the American and International media.

As per the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) Exhibit, Pakistani-American supporters of PTI hired lobbying firms for a duration of 45 days from 16 January to 1 March 2024 particularly to influence General Elections 2024 in Pakistan and to run a campaign against Pakistan armed forces.

According to documents published by an Islamabad-based investigative news site, Burki founded the PTI company on 7-11-2018, shortly after Imran Khan became Prime Minister.

A manager, Umer Khan with address 7207 Regency Square Boulevard, Ste 247, Houston, TX 77036 has also been mentioned in the documents perused by this correspondent. The file number of the Secretary of State is 803064729.

Atif Khan connection 

In the last two years, Sajjad Burki and Atif Khan received donations from three leading US businessmen but none of those donations have been declared or sent to Pakistan, disclosed PTI insiders in USA and Pakistan.

Several sources inside PTI say that Sajjad Burki and Atif Khan received money from three rich Pakistani Americans in the name of Imran Khan but they have not undertaken any audit with anyone regarding what happened to over $1.8 million received from the three businessmen as well as from over a dozen professional doctors, engineers and IT experts who support PTI.

Burki formed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf USA LIC and used the limited liability company to fraudulently obtain donations for his party which he then took for his personal use, according to multiple pieces of evidence and statements of PTI insiders.

Donations swindled 

Donations were taken on several websites made by PTI on which no audit has yet taken place. Most of the donations collected in the USA have reached the personal coffers of Atif Khan and Sajjad Burki, a PTI central leader said who is now also a MNA of the party.

Only a tiny portion was sent to Pakistan to PTI’s account. What happened to the remaining money is unknown and party workers remain wary of questioning Sajjad Burki because he is close to Aleema Khan and Imran Khan, said the PTI insider.

A casual perusal of the Twitter profiles of Sajjad Burki and Atif Khan reveals that the duo have been running a campaign against the Pakistan Army openly and secretly using multidimensional information warfare techniques to attack the credibility of Pakistan’s institutions.

Aleema & NAMAL Khan link

Since the fall of Imran Khan’s govt, Burki and his associate Atif Khan, who is also Imran Khan’s advisor have been busy trying to get USA to sanction Pakistan. Both of them operate in US on behalf of Aleema Khan to manage NAMAL University donations. Both post videos on Twitter/X with US Senators, making false allegations against Pakistani institutions. Both are helped by the likes of disgraced Shehbaz Gill, former Imran Khan advisor, and guitarist Salman Ahmed who is known for posting fake news on his X account.

Atif Khan describes himself as “former Member of Prime Minister Task Force/ Focal Person Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis during PTI Government” and now a member of PTI Core Committee, appointed by Imran Khan from jail. Burki describes himself as “Focal person for USA to Chairman PTI Imran Khan. Past President PTI USA”.

PTI insiders say that several forces including Burki do not want Imran Khan to come out of prison since their businesses will immensely suffer as a result.

Burki, who is also a part of Namal University was considered to be Imran Khan’s close confidante but his associations with several US politicians with links to India draws suspicions over his role in leading PTI USA.

On 2nd March, Burki shared a video on his Twitter in which he is seated with Congresswomen Marya Flores giving false information about Pakistan’s elections.

On 27th February, Burki tweeted a letter by Reps Greg Casar and Susan Wild calling on the Biden Administration to refrain from recognising the democratically elected government in Pakistan.

On 21st February, Burki attended a video session with Haider Mehdi and Adil Raja in which all of them engaged in a disinformation campaign against Pakistan’s institutions, making false claims without presenting any evidence.

Campaign against Pakistan

On 14th February, Burki tweeted that he called for overseas Pakistanis to stop sending remittances to Pakistan which would in effect damage their families who would be left penniless. Lately, he and many other PTI affiliated Social Media handles have been exhorting Pakistani expats to channelize their remittance through informal and mostly illegal channels. Ostensibly, this aims to increase financial difficulties for Government of Pakistan yet this information campaign stands in gross violation of Money Laundering Laws of US as well as Pakistan.

 

These tweets reveal how Burki has been openly working against the interests of Pakistan in the US, actively working with forces that are hostile to Pakistan.

Presenting false information for lobbying is considered a crime and it is possible that Sajjad Burki is brought to justice in American jurisdiction due to his repeated illegalities conducted against Pakistan and its institutions.

Burki however has chosen to maximize any possible benefits to be gained from the PTI whether they are financial or otherwise.

Even Atif Khan’s tweets reveal how he is running a systematic campaign against Pakistan’s armed forces with no efforts to hide his inclinations.

On 4th March, Atif tweeted a video with the title: “America suffers by supporting Military Generals”. This video was purposely made to instigate the people of Pakistan to conduct violence against their own institutions.

 

Lobbying firms & CIA

PTI USA has been using lobbying firms for several years to pressurize the Pakistani armed forces and to have the cases against Imran Khan closed. A senior PTI leader said that Sajjad Burki has been behind hiring every lobbying firm, mainly to target Pakistan Army and to raise funds from the forces aligned against Pakistan, including Indian donors working in cahoots with RAW, the Indian spy agency.

Very recently, Pakistani-American PTI supporter Fayaz Quireshi recently hired a lobbying firm “LGS LLC” headed by Stephen Payne for duration of 45 days from 16 Jan to 1 Mar 2024. The firm was paid $50,000 against its services related to the aimed targeting of Pakistani institutions. The announcement of the agreement was made on US government Dept of Justice official website.

This marked the third consultant the PTI and its supporters hired in the US after April 2022 when Imran Khan lost the vote of no confidence and was ousted. In March 2023, PTI hired Praia Consultants, LLC of Washington to support the party’s goal. The firm was hired for a six-month period at the cost of $8,333.00 per month.

In 2022, PTI USA portrayed as the New York-based party of US citizens of Pakistani origin hired another consultant, Fenton/Arlook. The firm was hired for a six-month period at $25,000 per month to manage PTI USA’s public and media relations. Atif Khan and Sajjad Burki confirmed that PTI had hired to “observe the elections”. It is pertinent to be mentioned that Fenton/Arlook is run by Robert Grenier, the ex-CIA Islamabad Station Chief who now also works privately for the CIA.

Anti-Army campaign 

Such links of these dubious actors with the American intelligence community have raised eyebrows in Islamabad over the nature of PTI’s lobbying efforts, particularly those that are taking place overseas. More recently, PTI leaders are now disassociating with Adil Raja and Haider Mehdi after their links with foreign intelligence services came to light.

PTI has significant penetration in Pakistani expat community of North Americans which have considerable influence with lawmakers and have the proverbial “deep pockets”. Moreover, Pakistani community in USA also provides funding for lobbying efforts but the community is not aware that Sajjad Burki and Atif Khan are using these funds for personal projection.

The PTI insiders said this approach is damaging for Pakistan and PTI both. He said: “Domestically, this approach undermine public trust in governance, exacerbates politico-economic instability, and leads to social unrest while fueling highly damaging narratives of ‘American tutelage of Pakistan’s political and/ or military leadership’. 

The effect of this external lobbying is evident into a stringent scrutiny of Pakistan’s electoral process through unusually harsh statements by many countries (as compared to Bangladesh and Egypt) along with one-sided debate in many media spaces, thus putting legitimacy of Pakistan’s political dispensation into question. It is now clear that those PTI affiliated scammers who worked internationally against the interests of Pakistan were primarily motivated by financial compensation in terms of stolen donations, rather than any ideological considerations.”

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