Five billion not enough for Pakistan: Holbrooke

US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke 

TOKYO Pakistan needs further international support, US special envoy Richard Holbrooke said on Saturday as he warned that a pledge of five billion dollars was ‘not enough’ to stabilise the troubled nation.At an aid meeting in Tokyo on Friday, donor countries pledged a total of 5.28 billion dollars to stabilise Pakistan, seen as a frontline state against Islamic extremism.The United States and Japan pledged one billion dollars each at the meeting Tokyo co-hosted with the World Bank.‘Five billion dollars is not enough,’ said Holbrooke, US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.'The terrorists in western Pakistan are planning other attacks around the world ... so we need to work hard to strengthen the government of Pakistan, to deal with the tribal areas with all its problems,' he said.‘We should – after congratulating the result yesterday – we should be very mindful of the fact that the problem is far from over,’ he said.He declined to give a figure on how much money was required to stabilise Pakistan, but noted that some economists say the number ‘is as high as 50 billion dollars.’More than half of Pakistan's people live below the poverty line of two dollars a day and ‘even in great cities like Karachi – which I would point out is the world's largest Muslim city – 17 million people (live) with only a few hours of electricity a day,’ he added.