Its minister Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said the hotel was under the Finance Ministry and its manager was appointed by the same ministry as well.

“The hotel is not under my ministry, so I will not comment on it, I can only give my opinion,” he told reporters after officiating the closing ceremony of the Touch Point Cabinet Away 2017 Programme here today.

He was commenting on a claim by PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali in his official Twitter account yesterday that the meeting had to be called off at the hotel as the management was pressured to cancel the booking at the last minute. He also urged Nazri to respond to the issue.

Perak PKR secretary Abdul Yunus Jamahari said he was informed about the cancellation at about 10pm Thursday night. He was also told the cancellation was upon the orders of certain parties.

Nazri, who is also Padang Rengas MP, denied the cancellation of the booking was connected to any political party as the hotel was set up to cater to everyone.

“The hotel was also set up to make a profit, so if we stop a programme just because it is involves a political party, then we will suffer the loss. If they (the opposition) do not hold the event at our place, they will do so at another place,” he said.

In a separate development, Nazri who is also Umno Supreme Council member, said the party was willing to accept former members who had joined PPBM and now wanted to leave the party to re-join Umno.

He said Umno was willing to forgive the actions or words hurled at the party by some individuals, and said the real reasons behind the formation of PPBM were “frustration and revenge”.

He was commenting on PPBM’s inability to hold its annual meeting one year after it was set up and the decision by several Perak division leaders recently to leave the party due to a leadership crisis.