He said there has to be an interim prime minister appointed first to run the country.

“Anwar could possibly be appointed only after obtaining a full pardon from the king and then proceed to win a parliamentary seat in a by-election.

“This process will take at least six months if Anwar is to be made prime minister,” he said.

The Federal Constitution states that a prime minister must be a member of the Dewan Rakyat, who is elected to represent a constituency.

The Constitution provides that the king then appoint a prime minister who, in his judgment, is likely to command the confidence of the majority of MPs.

Aziz said this in response to DAP’s Publicity Chief Tony Pua who announced that the Pakatan Harapan-designated prime minister is still Anwar.

Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) chairman, had earlier in London said that Muhyiddin Yassin could also be a choice for the premiership.

However, Dr Mahathir qualified himself by saying that Muhyiddin could be considered only if he was still PPBM president and the Opposition coalition agrees to his (Muhyiddin) candidature.

The 69-year-old Anwar is currently serving a five-year term at the Sungai Buloh Prison for sodomising his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, in 2008.

He was initially acquitted by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Jan 9, 2012. However, the Court of Appeal reversed the acquittal and sentenced him to a five-year jail term on March 7, 2014.

A five-man Federal Court bench, chaired by Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria, in maintaining the conviction, said it found that Saiful was a credible witness.

The bench also concluded that there was no break in the chain of evidence, as claimed by Anwar’s lawyers.

Anwar has filed a review of the Federal Court ruling, which would be heard on Oct 12.

However, lawyers are of the view that it would be an uphill task for Anwar’s legal team to convince the bench to set aside the verdict of the panel led by Arifin.