AS my long-suffering Gujarati friends have now realised, it is a new ball game. President Barack Hussein Obama, from what we know of him and from what he has said to the world, will play a new global game with a brand new ball.

Pakistan is on the map, in large letters. One immediate appointment was that of a special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to fill it Obama has placed top-ranking diplomat, magazine editor, author, professor, investment banker Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke who was seven years old when Pakistan was born. He will be the man who will talk to — or rather instruct — the present troika of president, prime minister, and most importantly, army chief who are the men presumed to call the shots in Pakistan. As Holbrooke himself has admitted, the situation in Pakistan is infinitely complex. It is difficult to differentiate chaff from grain or to be sure that the complex situation will remain as it is for the coming five minutes, so fluid is the state of flux.

Holbrooke (Brown and Princeton Universities) has held the positions of assistant secretary of state for Asia (1977-81), assistant secretary of state for Europe (1994-96), ambassador to Germany (1993-94) and has been nominated seven times for the Nobel Peace Prize. He has also been the US ambassador to the United Nations (1999-2001), a post of prime importance.

Amongst the first five appointments made by Obama was that of his permanent representative to the United Nations, Susan Rice, his senior foreign policy advisor throughout his presidential campaign, a senior fellow of the Brookings Institution in Washington, and the assistant secretary of state for African affairs under President Bill Clinton. These are somewhat different qualifications to those of the man appointed by our accidental and amateur president to fill Pakistan`s United Nations slot in New York. How exactly our permanent representative (HH2) qualifies for the position in which he has been put has yet to be disclosed to us.

Quite unlike the deeply-in-debt bankrupt and flailing Republic of Pakistan, which is totally unable to comprehend its true size and strength and which suffers from severe illusions as to its place in the comity of world nations, Obama has appointed a team of 33 men to govern and administer, all top-notchers, 15 of whom form his cabinet — yes, a mere 15. The world`s sole superpower, unlike our feeble, weak, vassal, can run itself and the world with a handful of men. The government of Pakistan, with its three-score plus rabble of ministers, advisors and the like is barely suited to run a village water hand pump let alone a nation of 170 million, one-third of whom exist below the poverty line.

Obama`s cabinet headed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is made up of the secretaries of defence, education, energy, interior, homeland security, health and human services, labour, transportation, treasury, veterans` affairs, agriculture, housing and urban development, the attorney general and the surgeon general — that`s it.

The diplomatic and political visitors from the western democracies are far too polite to say exactly what they think, at least in public, but it would be interesting to know how they regard a country on its knees which squanders whatever money it has on the upkeep of a government formed through nepotism, the paying back of favours, or insurance.

And what would be fascinating would be to be a fly on the wall when Richard Holbrooke holds his meetings with Asif Ali Zardari, that most unlikely head of state, with the man he appointed his prime minister for reasons known to us all, and with a helpless army chief who is in charge of an army completely out of its depths in Fata and particularly in the unfortunate ravaged and raped vale of Swat, in far gone days an epitome of orderliness.

The Obama administration and America in general, in line with the current economic situation, is making radical cuts in manpower placements and appointments. And what is Pakistan about to do? This government of nincompoops is about to reinstate 7,000 government employees who were legally removed from their jobs between November 1996 and December 1999. The reinstatement package deal, it is said, will not only cost the country Rs8bn in cash but put an inordinate strain on the state corporations which are already on the verge of bankruptcy. Does it make sense, any sense at all?

There is one plus point for Pakistan that has come in with Barack Obama. The Jan 19 edition of the Financial Times covering the Obama inauguration came out with an article entitled `Fifty heavy lifters`, which outlines the changes that will be brought about in Washington with the new occupant of the White House. The Obama people are expected to be younger, of greater ethnic and gender diversity and more metropolitan and technologically savvy than the outgoing crowd.

`The new DC` has been presented by listing 14 categories of individuals who will dominate the Washington scene. Amongst the categories listed (others being The White House, Cabinet, Capitol Hill, Top Brass, Federal Reserve, The Media, The Think Tanks, The Political Parties and so forth) are The Diplomats. Two men are listed under this category, the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Pakistan`s ambassador Husain Haqqani.

Whatever may be the attitude of many commentators in Pakistan towards the workings of our top diplomat in Washington (HH1), he has `made it,` and that is a plus point for his country. He is accused of being America`s man, as was that thorough gentleman, Gen Mehmud Durrani who was sacked for pre-empting the man supposed to be his boss, our innocuous prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani. Is it not to be expected that a man sent to Washington to represent Pakistan should be popular? Should he not have the knack of `getting on` with our mentors and benefactors? Is he sent to better relations or to worsen them? Durrani played his part well, as his successor Haqqani seems to have so far done.

Haqqani`s oleaginous skills have got him far, but as long as they work in Pakistan`s favour why should anyone resent him or denigrate him?

President Obama visited the State Department last Thursday where he made it quite clear that his focus may be more geared towards South Asia than it is to the Middle East. As he put it, Another threat to global security is the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is the central front in our enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism.

arfc@cyber.net.pk