WASHINGTON, April 6: Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao has suggested that ‘progressive political parties’ should be allowed to work in the tribal areas to counter the influence of religious extremists.

“Although the Political Parties Act has not yet been extended to the tribal areas, I think there’s room for encouraging political presence there,” Mr Sherpao told a briefing here.

He said the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and its allies had presence in the tribal areas and he saw no reason why progressive parties should be kept out.

Asked if the People’s Party Parliamentarians and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) would also be allowed to operate in the tribal areas, the minister said such details could be finalized once a decision to extend the Political Parties Act to the tribal belt was taken.

The interior minister said hundreds of armed foreigners had moved into the tribal belt after the fall of the Taliban government in Afghanistan and they were involved in terrorist activities.

“They are different from those who are settled there,” he said. “There are some Arabs among them as well but most of them are Chechens and Uzbeks.”

Mr Sherpao said some local militants had joined the extremists and were creating problems for the government.

He named Maulana Abdul Khaliq, Sadiq Noor and Abdullah Mahsud as leaders of the local militants but said no tribe was supporting them.

“When the foreigners crossed into Pakistan, we had no option but to send our troops to combat them,” said Mr Sherpao, adding that 78,000 soldiers were deployed in the tribal areas and had erected more than 600 checkpoints.

He said the government was strengthening the office of political agent and streamlining the ‘malik system’ to combat extremism in the tribal belt.

“We will also raise local levies force in north and south Waziristan,” he said.

The minister was in Washington to attend the fourth meeting of the Pakistan-US Joint Working Group, which on Wednesday discussed various proposals for defeating terrorism in South Asia.

The proposals included better training and equipment for law-enforcement agencies, the minister said.

He said Pakistan and the United States were working on promoting bilateral cooperation in energy, education, science and technology and economic affairs.

Mr Sherpao said the US was going to continue to encourage ‘composite dialogue’ between Pakistan and India on all issues, including the core issue of Kashmir.

“There are no problem areas between the US and Pakistan,” said the minister.