Nope. You can't see the bigger picture here - Al Qaeda has long left even their ideology mostly gone,.
This is an ethnic psychological game. Essentially the Pashtuns have accepted the Pakistani federation but due to the cultural hate of Punjabis, anyone who peddles the narrative of TTP attacking "Punjabis" (they target local FC the most btw) they feel they must be sympathetic towards them because they are a "true pashtun" who hates punjabis and they must accept it to also be a "true pashtun". culturally they feel they must accept the anti-punjabi narrative otherwise they aren't being true to themselves. but at the same time they accept pakistan which punjabis are a core part of.
So they sit on the fence, they allow TTP to operate at small levels due to sympathies of the anti-punjabi narrative, but when TTP is too big and can harm pakistan, their pakistani sympathy overpowers the TTP one, and they want the army to come in and kill all TTP militants.
then after a while the cycle restarts, and the "dollar game" accusations start.
We need a whole ISI psychological social analysis wing to research this stuff more in depth. Study the interactions, perceptions, stereotypes between all ethnicities and how it impacts our current situation both politically, and militancy.
@Signalian @PanzerKiel Opinions on above?