LAHORE, Nov 30: Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has pledged to improve conditions in jails to mitigate the problems being faced by prisoners.

He was speaking on the release of a batch of 562 prisoners involved in petty crimes from the Camp Jail here on Saturday.

He said a committee would be formed soon to start work in this regard. He said he was familiar with the difficulties being faced by the prisoners and the visitors as he himself had spent some time there when he was in opposition.

He said if needed, laws would also be framed for the purpose.

He stressed the need for establishing maximum technical institutions for the prisoners in jails so that they could become useful citizens of the country after their release.

Later, talking to reporters, the chief minister said the provincial cabinet would be announced after Eidul Fitr.

Asked if the PPP forward bloc would also be accommodated in the cabinet, he said consultations were continuing in this regard.

Asked if Mian Azhar was also being included in the process, he said the party president had been consulted in the past and the practice would be continued in the future as well.

Replying to a question, he said the law and order problem might be divided into two categories —- terror acts committed with the help of foreign hands and crime against property. Policies were being framed to tackle both, he added. He told a questioner that the protesting doctors and teachers were being invited for talks to solve their problems.

Earlier, IG (Prisons) Pervez Hasan Rajput told the chief minister that the prisoners, most of them held for possessing less than 100 gram narcotics, had been languishing in Camp and Kot Lakhpat jails for the last many months because they were unable to pay the fine levied by courts.

Some philanthropists paid the money to buy them release, he added.