PESHAWAR, Dec 11: A senior government official on Monday said that the upsurge in violence in Afghanistan was a home-grown problem and people of the Pakistani tribal region were not involved in it.

“Afghanistan needs to ponder over its own situation. Neither is North Waziristan nor its people are involved in violence (in Afghanistan). These are allegations which have no truth in them whatsoever,” Fata Law and Order Secretary Arbab Mohammad Arif told a news briefing here.

Mr Arif denied a parallel administration existed in the Federally-Administered Tribal Area of the North Waziristan Agency and debunked reports that the Taliban had set up offices to dispense justice and address public complaints.

He also denied that the Taliban were collecting donations in the restive tribal region by levying taxes on petrol pumps, bus terminals and transport carriers. “There is nothing of the sorts (happening there).”

He refuted the allegations by the Afghan government that militants in South and North Waziristan were imparting training to militants and sending suicide bombers to Afghanistan. "This is totally wrong,” he said.

When his attention was drawn to a pamphlet distributed by the Taliban to the effect, the official said militants had rescinded the orders when a committee monitoring the Sept 5 truce, broached the matter with them.

Mr Arif also denied reports that bodies of those killed in fighting across the borders were brought to the tribal region for burial. He said that funerals did take place but those were not of the militants killed in Afghanistan.

On the issue of foreign militants, the secretary said that it was a complicated issue and could not be resolved overnight. “Enforcement of the peace agreement takes time,” he said, adding that he could not give a time period on when the issue could be resolved.

The official said that efforts were being made to end fighting between two sectarian groups in the Khyber Agency but added that it would take some time to resolve the issue. He, however, maintained that the situation in the tribal region bordering Peshawar had improved to a great extent.

The clashes between the two groups from two different schools of thought have claimed several lives so far.

Mr Arif’s briefing followed a monthly meeting held with Additional Chief Secretary (Fata) Javed Iqbal in the chair to assess the law and order situation and review the second quarter of the Annual Development Plan for Fata. Briefing newsmen, Planning & Development Secretary Zafar Hassan said that the government was conducting a survey in the tribal region in collaboration with Unicef to collect data on the socio-economic situation, including health, education, water and sanitation and labour and economic activity.

He said the government was also launching a sustainable development plan from 2007-15 to improve women literacy from the present 3 per cent to 12 per cent and increase enrolment from 35 per cent to 80 per cent in nine years.

“It may not mean much but you have to see the situation in social context and how difficult it is to achieve that target,” he said.