Pakatan Harapan chief secretary Saifuddin Abdullah clarified individuals from the Opposition coalition might attend a press conference tomorrow with former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in their personal capacity.

He was explaining PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar's earlier statement, where she had said that Pakatan Harapan and Mahathir will have a press conference together tomorrow. However she apparently later explained to Saifuddin that she had been taken out of context.

"I wasn't there when she was asked, but she told us that her statement was taken out of context.

"My understanding is that she was trying to explain that to her knowledge, there will be a meeting tomorrow with Mahathir, and that she knows that there are individuals from Pakatan Harapan, who have seen Mahathir before, and who might be attending the meeting tomorrow.

“All this is being done by our friends in Pakatan Harapan in their own personal capacity," he said in a press conference at the PKR headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today.

He then added that the Opposition coalition has no involvement with whatever Mahathir is doing.

Saifuddin also stressed that if there were Pakatan Harapan leaders who are involved with Mahathir's proposal to form a core group against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's leadership, they would be doing it in their personal capacity.

"There's no problem with that, that's their own initiative," he explained.

Reporter's question

In a separate press conference earlier, Nurul Izzah had replied to a reporter's question on Mahathir's proposal to form a core group by saying that they needed to wait for the official press conference tomorrow.

When met by reporters later, she had revealed that the press conference would be at 3.30pm tomorrow.

Asked again whether the press conference would involve Pakatan Harapan and Mahathir, she had simply replied 'yes'.

She had then even expressed surprise that the media had not been informed of this press conference.

Earlier, she had also stressed that the cooperation would only work if Mahathir was "sincere and committed" to thorough reforms within the country.

"The two key things (are) commitment towards reform and sincerity to realising it till the end.

"These are the prerequisites before anything can be said," she told reporters later.

Any feelings of bitterness must be set aside, Nurul Izzah added, to prioritise the future of Malaysia.

"If we are trapped by our own feelings of vengeance or anger or bitterness then we're not able to focus on the need to safeguard the future," she said.

However, she also later clarified through a text message that even if the Opposition and Mahathir shared the common goal of fighting against Najib's leadership, Mahathir cannot be absolved of his past crimes.

"The Opposition and Mahathir share only the zeal to remove Najib, provided that Mahathir sincerely commits to implementing reforms.

"But it doesn't absolve Mahathir of his past abuses of power and wrongdoings, including huge economic miscalculations," the text read.

Mahathir announced on Monday that he was quitting Umno, for the second time.

He had also expressed interest in forming a core group against Najib's leadership.