PTI-MQM-P negotiations: Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui says 'visible progress' expected in few days.

KARACHI -- Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Convener Dr. Kahlid Maqbool Siddiqui on Saturday said that "visible progress" was expected to take place in the next few days, as a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) delegation held talks to appease its disgruntled ally.

The PTI delegation comprised Defence Minister Pervez Khan Khattak, Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Asad Umar, and senior party leader Sardar Jahangir Khan Tareen, Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly Firdous Shamim Naqvi among others, met the MQM-Pakistan leadership at their party headquarter in Karachi to address their grievances. MQM delegation was led by Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui while Aamir Khan, Kanwar Naveed Jameel, Faisal Subzwari, Aminul Haq, Nasreen Jalil and Muhammad Hussain were also present.

Speaking to media after the meeting between the PTI-MQM-P delegations concluded, Siddiqui said his party had highlighted the problems facing Sindh's urban areas and Karachi.

"The PTI knew about these problems before we joined hands to form the federal government," he said, saying that the MQM-P had given the ruling party "unconditional support" during its time of need.

The MQM-P convener said talks held with the PTI delegation were "encouraging" and the demands put forward by his party were for the welfare of the people of Karachi and Sindh. He said these demands were not meant to benefit any individual or political party but the people in general.

"The PTI is a witness to the demands we put forward before them and even you [reporters] may have the main points [of the demands] in your hands," he said.

Siddiqui said that the 18th Constitutional Amendment had been misused in the past and that power had yet to be devolved to the lower level. He said Sindh's urban areas "are in the Intensive Care Unit" and those areas of the country should be taken care of by the government whose shopkeepers, traders and industrialists were "fulfilling their responsibilities" and generating revenue. "Sindh's urban areas...