Former minister Nazri Abdul Aziz believes that Umno's fate now rests in the hands of Anwar Ibrahim after Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad refused to work with the party he had led for more than two decades.

Speaking to Malaysiakini, he said Umno, which is now under the stewardship of Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, does not have a direction following its defeat in the last general election.

However, he claims that working with the prime minister-in-waiting could provide Umno with a sense of direction.

"There is no direction (for Umno). That is why I said... we need to work with Anwar because working with Anwar, we will have some direction where we are heading to.

"It is not that I do not want to work with Mahathir but he has rejected us. Our only hope is Anwar, that's all," he added.

Anwar had once served as Umno's deputy president prior to his sacking in 1998.

Previously, Nazri offered to campaign for Anwar in the coming Port Dickson by-election, claiming that it would help Umno return into the government.

Commenting on the exodus of two Umno bigwigs and the speculation of more resignations to follow, Nazri questioned the reason behind Umno's cooperation with PAS.

"They can't even form a government and PAS has rejected our offer when we wanted to be the state government in Perak so there is no point.

"I don't understand why we want to work with them," he told Malaysiakini.

He was referring to the formation of the Perak state government after the 14th general election (GE14), which saw a hung state after Pakatan Harapan garnered 29 state seats while BN secured 27 and PAS had three.

BN's initial attempt to form a state government with PAS did not succeed, but providence swung in Harapan's favour when two BN representatives decided to declare their support for the coalition's candidate for menteri besar.

Despite this, Umno and PAS have worked together since then, with Umno helping to campaign for PAS in the Seri Setia by-election and Umno leaders showing up at PAS' muktamar last week.

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