Hours after defending its decision to publish a cartoon depicting Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad with a pig's snout, opposition PAS' organ Harakah today issued an apology over the matter.

In a two-paragraph statement, editor Zulkifli Zulong said Harakah had no intention to humiliate anyone by publishing the caricature, drawn by cartoonist Zulkifli Anwar Haq - whose pen-name is Zunar - in the paper's latest edition.

Elaborating on the statement, Zulkifli told malaysiakini that the decision was made because the bi-monthly publication did not want to prolong the controversy over the issue.