Newly accessed United States government filings have revealed the scale of an intense lobbying campaign mounted by Pakistan in Washington as it sought to blunt India’s military response during Operation Sindoor in May 2025.
Documents now available show that Pakistani diplomats and defence officials pursued more than 60 engagements with senior US administration officials, lawmakers, Pentagon and State Department officials, and influential American journalists between late April 2025 and the implementation of a ceasefire that followed the military escalation.
This is bad news for Pakistan apologists.
Documents released under America’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) show that India’s Operation Sindoor in April last year shook Pakistan.
Pakistan lobbied aggressively through its diplomats in the US to prevent a war, contacting… pic.twitter.com/pM5mzMCVU6
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) January 7, 2026
The filings, submitted under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), indicate that Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States and its defence attaché repeatedly reached out through emails, phone calls and in-person meetings. The stated objective of this outreach was to press Washington to intervene and “somehow stop” India’s military campaign launched in response to the terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the disclosures, discussions during these interactions covered Kashmir, regional security, rare earth minerals, and broader Pakistan–US relations. Pakistani representatives also sought interviews and background briefings with major US media organisations. Several entries in the filings described the efforts as “ongoing representation of Pakistan,” reflecting the sustained and coordinated nature of the lobbying drive.
The campaign unfolded against the backdrop of mounting military pressure on Islamabad following India’s strikes. Diplomatic sources said the filings point to a state under acute strain, attempting to mobilise political, bureaucratic and media influence in Washington to counter New Delhi’s battlefield momentum.
The disclosures also align with a broader pattern of increased Pakistani lobbying in the United States. In November 2025, The New York Times reported that Pakistan had entered into contracts with six Washington-based lobbying firms at a combined cost of approximately $5 million annually. The aim, according to the report, was to secure faster access to the administration of then-US President Donald Trump and influence trade and diplomatic outcomes.
The New York Times investigation further noted that Pakistan significantly ramped up its lobbying expenditure during April and May 2025, spending at least three times more than India during the same period. The paper characterised the resulting shift in engagement as a sharp turnaround from previously strained US–Pakistan relations, marked by public praise for President Trump, the nomination of his name for the Nobel Peace Prize, and efforts to secure favourable business and trade concessions.
Weeks after Islamabad finalised a deal with Seiden Law LLP, working through Javelin Advisors, President Trump hosted Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir at the White House. The meeting was widely interpreted by analysts as signalling Pakistan’s renewed access to the highest levels of US political power.
Multiple diplomatic sources said the 2025 FARA filings confirm that Pakistan expanded its lobbying footprint across Capitol Hill and the US media ecosystem, with individual contracts and outreach efforts running into hundreds of thousands of dollars. While there were indications that lobbying activity tapered later in the year, the filings collectively depict an aggressive and sustained campaign during the peak of the military crisis.
India had launched Operation Sindoor following the terror attack in Pahalgam, which killed 26 people. The operation targeted terror launch pads, training camps and logistics hubs linked to Pakistan-based groups, along with precision strikes on select airbases assessed by Indian authorities to be supporting or shielding such networks.
In the aftermath of the strikes, Pakistan sought to downplay the scale of damage, claiming Indian assessments were exaggerated. However, high-resolution satellite imagery released by independent analysts and commercial providers showed visible destruction at several identified locations. The images revealed damaged runways, hangars and support infrastructure at key airbases, as well as flattened structures at known militant facilities.
Comparisons with pre-strike imagery contradicted official Pakistani statements and reinforced India’s position that Operation Sindoor had achieved its stated objectives, highlighting a widening gap between Islamabad’s public narrative and the situation on the ground.
Source: NDTV
Subscribe to our channels on Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
