US has full confidence in Pak government's ability : Holbrooke

Washington, May 2 (ANI): Days after US President Barack Obama termed the democratic Pakistan Government as "very fragile", the US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke has said that the US has full confidence in the ability of Pakistan's democratic set-up.

Rubbishing all media reports about Obama calling Pakistani Government "very fragile", Holbrooke said the US has been supporting the Zardari regime and would continue doing so.

"Our support is for the democratically elected government of President Asif Ali Zardari. It's as simple as that. This is journalistic garbage. This is journalistic gobbledygook. It's a story being hyped by journalists," Holbrooke said.

He clarified that Obama's remarks referred to the weakness of civilian institutions in Pakistan, and that the Pakistani media had interpreted it wrongly.

When asked to comment over whether Islamabad was capable of tackling the Taliban's surge, Holbrooke said : "Of course, the government in Islamabad is capable of running the country. They are democratically elected, a fine group of people."

"And we are not throwing bricks over Pakistan. I don't even know what that means.

We are helping Pakistan. We helped raise billions of dollars for Pakistan at a pledging conference in April. And now, we are going to ask Congress for even more money for Pakistan. We believe Pakistan is a critically important country," The Dawn quoted Holbrooke, as saying.

Holbrooke added that Pakistan means a lot to President Obama, and he also has 'very deep personal feelings for the country.'

"As a young man he visited Pakistan. His mother worked there, she loved Pakistan," he said. (ANI)