Tariq said while he believed whatever happened behind closed doors should not be aired in public, now that it allegedly had, Anina should try to put a stop to all the speculation by pursuing legal action.

“This whole thing has gotten out of hand. She should address the allegations and lodge a police report so whoever is responsible can be held accountable,” he told FMT.

The scandal was allegedly exposed by Anina’s former aide and according to Anina herself, it was the reason behind PPBM leaders’ decision to strip her of her Srikandi (women) chief post.

Tariq however denied this and reiterated that the Srikandi wing had yet to be formed.

Another supreme council member, Kamarulazman Habibur Rahman, disagreed with Tariq and said Anina need not go to the police if she felt there was no need to do so.

“It depends on her, whether she wants to lodge a report or not. For me, I can’t be running to the police every time someone says something bad about me.

“And I think if that someone is talking without facts, then I don’t need to pay attention to it,” he said when contacted by FMT.

On another matter, Tariq, when asked as to PPBM’s next course of action in dealing with the scandal that has caused a rift among its party members, and if the supreme council would investigate who was responsible for it, said:

“Most of the party leaders are away right now. Once all the supreme council members are back, we will sit down and discuss this.

“But I advise the party members to calm down and let (PPBM chairman) Tun (Dr Mahathir Mohamad) help us solve this problem.”

He also claimed some activists in the party had been egging the issue on and this had created factions within the party.