Anwar Ibrahim has dismissed the suggestion of waiting for an MP to die so that a by-election could be held for him to pave his return to Parliament.

"That is a bengong (ridiculous) view.

"It is not strange for an MP to offer to step down. Let's not pray for someone to die early," he told a press conference at the PKR headquarters in Petaling Jaya this morning.

Anwar was responding to a question on whether he would engineer a by-election or wait for one to occur from natural causes.

PKR's Selayang MP William Leong (photo) and Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul have both offered to step down for Anwar.

Anwar also dismissed the possibility of him contesting in the Seri Setia state by-election.

"So I can become (Selangor) menteri besar? ... There's no need. I will become an MP, so there's no need for me to become a state assemblyperson, too," he said.

Anwar said there was consensus before his release that he should make a parliamentary return. This would be to enable the eventual transition of power from Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to him.

However, Anwar said that he would return to Parliament as a backbencher first, to focus on reforming the august House.

He also said that he would discuss his return to Parliament with Mahathir first.

He reiterated that he supports the Mahathir government, and is in no rush to take over Putrajaya.

Asked when he would make his Parliamentary comeback, Anwar replied: "I'll ask Tok Tenom (a fortune-teller)."

The eventual by-election will be the third staged for Anwar.

The first was in Aug 2008, when his wife Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail stepped down as Permatang Pauh MP for him.

The second was the Kajang by-election in 2014, which was engineered for Anwar to become Selangor menteri besar.

However, this plan was derailed when the Court of Appeal overturned the “not guilty” verdict in his Sodomy II case, forcing Wan Azizah to contest in Kajang instead.