Who is David Fenton?

Minister of State for Petroleum Division Minister Musadik Malik on Saturday said the PTI hired a lobbying firm in the US to strengthen its relations with a country which Imran Khan says toppled his government earlier this year.

He said that the firm Fenton/Airlook is owned by David Owned by David Fenton who has been an opponent of Pakistan’s nuclear programme.

The minister took aim at the PTI for hiring Pakistan’s enemies in the US to further its agenda.

Interestingly, Musadik Malik did not mention that David Fenton sold Fenton a few years ago to work on climate change full time.

While it is true that David Fenton is opposed to Pakistan’s nuclear programme, a look at his career shows that is also a climate change activist who will oppose nuclear weapons no matter which country acquires them.

His Twitter account also shows that he has been advocating for safe nuclear energy and expressing concern about the Russian and Ukraine’s clashes near a Ukrainian nuclear power plant.

David Fenton is not the only one who has opposed Pakistan’s nuclear programme. Pakistani scientists Pervez Hoodbhoy has openly criticized the country’s nuclear weapons.

Anyone speaking and writing against nuclear weapons does not necessarily passes for a traitor or enemy of the state.

David Fenton, named “one of the 100 most influential P.R. people”  founded Fenton in 1982 to create communications campaigns for the environment, public health and human rights. 

For more than five decades he has pioneered the use of PR, social media and advertising techniques for social change. 

Fenton started his career as a photojournalist in the late 1960s – his book Shots: An American Photographer’s Journal was published in 2005.

He was formerly director of public relations at Rolling Stone magazine and co-producer of the No-Nukes concerts in 1979 at Madison Square Garden with Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, and other artists. 
He has also helped create JStreet, Climate Nexus, the Death Penalty Information Center, and Families for a Future.