Change has come to America, Barack Hussain Obama declares to the world in his maiden speech in Chicago on becoming the first black president-elect of the United States. However, many in Pakistan wonder whether this would reflect in any positive changes for their country.

Generally, people here had been hoping for his Republican rival John McCain to win the US election, since they thought that he supposedly had a less aggressive stance towards Pakistan; while Obama was viewed increasingly with suspicion for his blatant remarks of taking military action inside our territory.

Professor Talat Wazarat, a lecturer at the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi, says she expects the next president of the United States to halt all ‘counter-productive’ measures against Pakistan.

She says the ‘war on terror’ has gotten out of control and claims people here are getting sick of it. Even though, she says, both presidential candidates would have been equally bad for us, she hopes the next US president would change gears in the ‘highly unpopular’ war.

Technologist Maqsood Kayani compares Pakistan’s fate in the US president’s hand with that of a camel that has trouble both climbing and descending a mountain. He too favored McCain and thought he would have been slightly better for Pakistan for his less hostile position.

Banker Naveed Malik says Obama’s top priority is economic turnaround in the US and his focus would be more on domestic policies, because of which it is unlikely that Pakistan will get generous financial aid to stabilize its own economy. If Mccain had won the US elections, things would have been different since his top priority was ‘war on terror’ and Pakistan, being a frontline state, would have had a better chance of receiving funds under him, he adds.

Engineer Ahsan Mohiuddin expects zero or negative growth in Pakistan’s energy and trade sectors under Obama. The next US president will haggle for everything and make Pakistan pay a price for signing power deals with Iran, and providing a trade corridor (Gwadar-Torkham) to China for access to its interests in African countries, he says. Also, he fears, if a nuclear energy deal with China materializes, Obama will immediately demand from Pakistan to sign the NPT, CTBT treaties as well as handing over nuclear scientist Dr A.Q. Khan.

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Amna Kaleem and Humayun Raza, two working professionals in the UK, agree that both the presidential candidates were just two sides of the same coin and the end result of the election will not prove to be a pleasant outcome for Pakistan.

A dejected animation artist, Nadia Khan, says she doesn’t expect any good from her own government so why should she hope for anything better from the next president of the United States.

Meanwhile, lawyer Mohammad Wasim says he is looking forward to Barack Obama and praised him for promising to break away from traditional American policies of leaning towards only certain individuals in power instead of the people of Pakistan. He says Pakistanis need Obama’s ‘unflinching support for democratic institutions in the country’.

Naveed Bumbia, a Pakistani student living in the US, also thinks Obama will make a good president since, he says, he has better solutions to domestic and international problems.

A sea of change is sweeping across the United States on this historic day. While we in Pakistan remain gripped in our own myriad of problems and contemplate whether Obama will bomb us or not, the fact of the matter is that he will be a great president for the American people, if not for the world. Some of us ask why we can’t have leaders like these in our own country who can inspire a whole nation and give hope, if nothing else.

‘That’s the true genius of America: that America can change,’ says Obama. The question is: can we?

The writer can be contacted at salman.siddiqui@dawn.com