Zaid Ibrahim believes that a public inquiry into the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu would be more useful as opposed to setting up a task force to investigate Bank Negara's foreign exchange losses, which occurred more than two decades ago.

The former law minister Zaid Ibrahim also questioned Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's silence on the forex issue until now.

"Did he register unhappiness over the losses and ask for a public inquiry (in the past)?

"He took office in 2009, or seven years ago, and in all the time since then he did not say a word about the forex losses either - until now. If it was such an important issue for the country then surely he would have acted sooner," he added in a blog posting.

Based on this, Zaid claimed it is clear that the task force is an attempt to discredit former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and former finance minister Daim Zainuddin.