Amanah vice-president Mahfuz Omar said there is no attempt to stage a coup against Dr Mahathir Mohamad as the prime minister has repeatedly said he intends to step down before his term ends.

He said this in response to PAS, which had claimed that some within Pakatan Harapan were plotting a vote of no confidence against Mahathir.

"PAS claims there are Harapan components that want to overthrow Tun (Mahathir) so they want to defend him.

"I would like to say that no one wants to overthrow Mahathir as he has repeatedly stated that he intends to step down," he told journalists while visiting a fish cracker factory in Tumpat, Kelantan.

Mahfuz noted that Mahathir had repeatedly reiterated his pledge to hand over power to PKR president Anwar Ibrahim.

This was a condition imposed by the Pakatan Harapan presidential council when it agreed to accept Mahathir as the coalition's chairperson.

There have been calls for Mahathir to stay on for a full term, but the prime minister had said he was bound by the decision and intends to honour it.

Mahathir had said he plans to stay as prime minister for around two years.

Mahfuz, who is also Pokok Sena MP, said PAS' claim of a planned coup was merely to distract from the party's own controversy after PAS central committee member Nik Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz admitted to lying about an audio recording.

Nik Abduh had initially denied he was the person in an audio recording, in which he spoke about taking Umno's money, but later said the audio recording was genuine and that he had lied with PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang's endorsement.

"It's strange for PAS to suddenly want to support Mahathir when they previously claimed Mahathir was a DAP puppet.

"If Mahathir was a DAP puppet, why would DAP want to oust him?" Mahfuz said.