I had the same belief my friend, but after the control of Khyber Pass & Bajour Agency. It’s enough to prove of their so-called tribal’s myth.
One more pointer, i was going through a list of our regional/local military commanders in FATA/NWFP, its good to see all of them are from same regions and speak pushto and understand the culture, because they grew up their.
I don’t know about Afghanistan, but our area’s are not going anywhere, until we let loose by ourselves 