Pak Government writ absent in some tribal areas: Boucher

US Assistant Secretary of State for Central and S. Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher, has said that some tribal areas of Pakistan have ungoverned spaces, where the writ of Islamabad doesnt hold sway.

Washington, Aug 3 : US Assistant Secretary of State for Central and S. Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher, has said that some tribal areas of Pakistan have ungoverned spaces, where the writ of Islamabad doesn't hold sway.

Talking to reporters here about the situation in Pakistan's tribal areas, Boucher said that the problem lies on "both sides" of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, and there is a "lot of activity" on both sides.

Commenting on the suggestion that Washington might go after al Qaeda or Taliban targets, Boucher said, "We do work with them (Pakistan and Afghanistan) together as well as individually. I think we start from the premise that there are problems on both sides of the border."

The Daily Times quoted him as saying that the Taliban is under pressure from both sides.

"The general trend we've seen is a rise in cooperation from Pakistan and Afghanistan, although there are a lot more areas where we can encourage that and do encourage that.

Boucher said that the US is working with both Afghanistan and Pakistan on the problems inside their countries.

"US has major programmes with Pakistan to bring economic development to the border areas, to improve security and to cooperate with the government of Pakistan as it goes about its task of dealing with the extremists," he said.

ANI