Saifuddin said he would meet the board at 2pm on Thursday. He said in a brief statement tonight that he received a notice today calling him to a meeting at 4.40pm on Thursday.

“I have asked for the session to be held earlier, as I have a programme outside Kuala Lumpur at night. The board has agreed,” he said.

Saifuddin’s attack on Muhyiddin was made in news interviews and in a joint statement by several Bersatu divisional leaders.

He was removed as Perikatan Nasional’s Pahang chief, and a call for immediate disciplinary action against him was made by Bersatu Youth, which said Saifuddin’s attack clearly revealed his “malicious intent to damage the party”.

The youth wing’s information chief, Harris Idaham Rashid, said Saifuddin should leave the party if he had lost trust in the president.

Saifuddin had claimed that Muhiddin had “lost his leadership quality” and is no longer the same leader he once admired.

He also called for the resignation of senior party figures Azmin Ali and Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz.

Saifuddin, who is Indera Mahkota MP and a former foreign minister, had called on Muhyiddin to clear the air over whether his son-in-law, fugitive businessman Adlan Berhan, had indeed fled the country, following the appearance of pictures of Adlan living lavishly abroad.