Mahathir said it was not because the leaders were from Umno but because they had committed crimes.

“We have thousands of cases from the time of (former prime minister) Najib Razak’s administration.

“We cannot handle 1,000 cases in a day. We can only focus on the big cases and most of these involve Umno,” he said at his office here after chairing the Special Cabinet Committee on Anti-Corruption.

Mahathir was asked to comment on why no graft charges had been brought against those from other BN component parties.

Former Umno Supreme Council member Puad Zarkashi had accused the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) of deliberately targeting only Umno to charge former government leaders with corruption.

He had claimed this was part of a game plan by Mahathir to destroy Umno.

Puad claimed Mahathir wanted to destroy Umno and force the members and leaders to join PPBM to save the party.

He said the prime minister did not think MCA, MIC and Gerakan, which were part of the previous BN government, were a threat.

On whether he was aware of allegations that a son of a Pakatan Harapan (PH) minister was involved in the alleged direct awarding of eight out of 10 contracts through an unidentified ministry, Mahathir said MACC was investigating the matter.

Asked about MACC reopening investigations into the purchase of two Scorpene-class submarines in 2002, Mahathir said he was not aware of the matter.

“It was reported in the press. You are aware (of it).”

He said the deal was something that had happened in the past and that MACC might look at it to see if they find enough evidence of “some hanky-panky in the purchase of the submarine”.