The arrest of Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and his expected charging in court tomorrow is an attempt by the current government to "kill" Umno, claimed its Batu Pahat chief Mohd Puad Zarkashi (above).

In a Facebook post today, Puad said the episode also "completes" the agenda of Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

"The goal is to shame Umno, pressure Umno, split Umno, spook other Umno leaders, confuse Umno members and convince the rakyat that Umno leaders are corrupt.

"Mahathir must be happy for having 'insulted' senior Umno leaders like Zahid and (former president) Najib (Abdul Razak), by making them go to the courts repeatedly and spend overnight in (MACC's) custody.

“Not only that, their families have been abused and shamed," Puad, who is also a former Umno supreme council member, alleged.

He further claimed that Mahathir's sole focus was Umno and he was not bothered about bringing the leaders of other BN (or former) component parties to book.

"There are no MCA, MIC or Gerakan leaders being hauled up and charged. Why? The answer is simple - Mahathir is not interested. To him, all these parties are dead and do not need to be 'killed' further. But Umno seems to die hard.

"Mahathir is disappointed that after the 14th general election (defeat), Umno refuses to 'die'. He managed to scare Tok Pa (former Umno MP Mustapa Mohamed) who was considered 'Mr Clean' in the party. Tok Pa quit the party just after a few hours of questioning. Thank God, no one in his constituency of Jeli followed suit.

"Now the 'Mahazalim' and 'Mahafiraun' monikers have started to be mentioned again. Mahathir plays dead and turns a blind eye to the 'sins' in front of him such as the dropping of the graft charges against Lim Guan Eng.

“It was all part of Mahathir's plan. If not, would he have appointed Lim as a minister while the latter was still being subjected to a court proceeding?" Puad posed.

He concluded by saying that the time will come for Mahathir to be 'shamed' as "humans plan, but ultimately, it is God who decides."

Zahid is spending the night in MACC custody after he was arrested earlier today.

He is expected to face several charges of money laundering, abuse of power and criminal breach of trust tomorrow.