Minister bungles on Quran chapters

Islamabad: Pakistan's Education Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi yesterday deplored sarcastic comments against him for mentioning wrongly the number of chapters in Quran.

Qazi came under attack for saying in a TV programme that children would study all 40 chapters of the holy book in schools under a new curriculum to be introduced in the near future.

In a statement the minister, a retired army lieutenant general and former ISI chief, said he inadvertently made the mistake.

"It was a slip of the tongue and after being pointed out by the anchorperson I apologised in the programme and corrected myself by stating that I meant 30 Siparas [chapters] and not 40," the minister said.