PAS' planned vote of confidence for Dr Mahathir Mohamad last month, was meant to disrupt Pakatan Harapan and thwart Anwar Ibrahim from becoming prime minister.

Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan, who said he chaired the Muafakat Nasional (MN) negotiating committee, said it was part of their duty as the then-opposition.

"That is why in a meeting we said 'PAS, make a statement, we will table a motion of confidence for the prime minister (Mahathir)'. Because we know Abang Non (Anwar) wanted to become PM.

"So we planted a time bomb, to see if they would run in the middle of the night or not.

"We planned this, to put them in turmoil... They became suspicious of each other.

"We live in strange times, very strange. Which opposition would put a motion of confidence to the prime minister?" Mohamad said.

He was speaking to Pagoh Umno branch-level delegates from the Youth, Women and Puteri Wings this morning. A video of his speech was streamed by Umno Online's Facebook page.

PAS' had defended its confidence vote for Mahathir as a means to prevent democracy from being subverted through demands that the nonagenarian resign.

They dropped the matter after Harapan said it would leave the transition matter completely up to Mahathir.

The push by Anwar's supporters for Mahathir to resign early had been cited as a reason why Bersatu joined forces with Umno and PAS to form a new government.

The move triggered a political crisis which ironically caused Mahathir to resign.

It ended with Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin being sworn-in as the head of a Perikatan Nasional coalition made up of Bersatu, BN, and PAS, with support from GPS.

PAS now says that Harapan's efforts to challenge Muhyiddin with a vote of no-confidence in Parliament is disrespectful to the Agong, who appointed Muhyiddin on the belief he had majority support.

Mohamad denied that Umno had usurped power but said they would be foolish not to take advantage of Harapan's fall.

However, he also said that MN had wanted to take down Harapan because the latter would have made Malays suffer.

"If we had let Harapan be for another 2-3 years, there would be a great calamity on the Malays and Islam.

"We had to prevent that, that is why we needed to bring them down immediately.

"But they fell too fast, and we were left gobsmacked," he said with a smile.