Anti-liberation political force Jamaat-e-Islami has appointed a lobbyist firm in Washington to move into State Department and Congress to protect its interest.
Jamaat wants to ensure that policies of the US administration do not shift in any manner contrary to the interest of the political party.
New York-based Organisation for Peace and Justice (OPJ) has hired Husch Blackwell Strategies (HBS) to ensure that no environment will be created where Jamaat is defined as a security threat within Bangladesh or an international scale.
The lobbyist firm also proposed to send its expert to Dhaka on a fact finding mission.
Gregg Hartley, Executive Vice Chair, John Ariale, Principal and Singleton McAllister, Senior Adviser of HBS are the members of the team which will work with Jamaat.
According to the Sept 23 agreement between HBS and OPJ, Husch will provide service to OPJ from October 2018 to September 2019 and charge an amount of $132,000 for the period.
“HBS shall provide professional services to (OPJ) for federal government relations representations as proposed in the July 30, 2018 proposal,” it reads.
On July 30, it was proposed that “HBS will work with OPJ to develop strategic plan to implement general objectives listed above at the Congressional and Administrative levels at the United States government.”
HBS will engage the State Department to assess the department’s current view of Jamaat .
The HBS proposed that “Based on the scope of the work anticipated to effectively execute the services outlined, we would ask that OPJ consider underwriting at least one international trip for our two principals on the OPJ team to meet experts on the ground in Bangladesh, visit with US officials and conduct a fact finding mission."
This is not the first time Jamaat hired a US lobbyist firm. In the past, it at least hired two firms to lobby for its cause.
OPJ hired Cassidy and Associates in 2014 and in public disclosure the lobbyist revealed that ‘Sympathisers of the Jamaat-e-Islami political party are directors/employees of Organisation for Peace and Justice Inc and the mission of the principal benefits the party and its member in Bangladesh.”
Jamaat hired Cassidy for 90 days and paid $50,000 and other expenses. The lobbyist was hired to pressure the government of Bangladesh to suspend International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) proceedings.
“We will engage members of the U.S. Congress to support a Congressional resolution condemning the actions of the ICT and to use best efforts to include anti-ICT legislative language in the House/Senate, Department of State reauthorization bill,” revealed Cassidy in its public disclosure.
The lobbyist also chalked out a media plan under which a credible western third party spokesperson offered credible messages critical of the ruling government policies.
It also hired another lobbyist, Kglobal the same year.