News
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Musharraf could rake it in on speaking tour
* PR firm says speaking fee for Musharraf would be in $150,000-200,000 range per day
Daily Times Monitor
LAHORE: General (r) Pervez Musharraf, who resigned from the president’s office on Monday may be out of power but not out of money, Newsweek said on Saturday. “When the 65-year-old former army chief finally leaves his British colonial-style residence inside Rawalpindi’s army garrison for an expected pilgrimage to Makkah in the next few days, he may continue travelling on a lucrative speaking tour through the Middle East, Europe and the United States,” according to the New York-based news magazine. Chicago-based Embark LLC is just one of the international public relations firms trying to land Musharraf as a highly paid keynote speaker. The articulate and brash 44-year army veteran’s earning power on the lecture circuit could approach that of former US president Bill Clinton, who famously snubbed him during a lightning visit to Islamabad eight years ago. Range: “The [speaking] fee for Musharraf would be in the $150,000-200,000 range for a day,” Embark President David B Wheeler told Newsweek, “plus jet and other VIP arrangements on the ground”. Wheeler said, Clinton, for whom Embark has arranged speaking engagements in the Middle East, commands up to $250,000 per appearance. “If we did multiple events in multiple cities, [Musharraf] could get closer to the $500,000 to $1,000,000 range [for a series of talks],” he said. Embark, which promises “unique experiences that educate, entertain and enlighten”, has also booked speeches for former US president George HW Bush and former US secretary of state Colin Powell. Pakistanis, who know Musharraf, say this is good news for the former president who is not believed to have salted away a fortune while in office as previous Pakistani leaders are alleged to have done, and will only receive a modest army retirement pension. Since his resignation, he has been playing golf and tennis with friends, surrounded by heavy security, and is also planning to write a sequel to his successful 2006 autobiography, “In the Line of Fire”, which could easily net him another seven-figure windfall, says Newsweek.
Courtesy Daily Times