PESHAWAR: Public prosecutors on Thursday started a province-wide strike for acceptance of their demands including setting up of an independent prosecution department and office of prosecutor general on the pattern of other provinces.

The indefinite strike call was given by the Prosecution Officers Welfare Association (Powa), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in a provincial convention of prosecutors a day earlier.

The prosecutors mostly stayed away from official work and didn`t appear in cases on behalf of the government before courts.

The association has put forward a nine-point charter of demands to the government stating that early this year the government had made commitment that their demands would be fulfilled but so far the matter was being delayed.

The officer bearers of the association including its president Sangeen Shah, general secretary Javed Ali Mohmand, Waheedullah, Zulfiqar Ali and others visited offices of prosecutors in their respective districts.

The protesting prosecutors had also displayed placards in their offices inscribed with their demands.

Sangeen Shah said that their major demands included provision of 1.5 running basic pay or equivalent special allowance on the pattern of judiciary and police; residential facilities for regional directors at divisional level and district public prosecutors at district level; offices for all prosecution officers especially females including washrooms and prayer rooms; establishment of the office of prosecutor general; official vehicles for all regional directors, district public prosecutors and prosecutors of anti-terrorism courts and other special courts; provision of prosecution and utility allowances to supporting staff on pattern of Punjab and Balochistan; and application of four-tier service structure formula to prosecutors.