KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 8 — Former Umno supreme council member Isham Jalil said he has not received any letter that he has been expelled from the Malay nationalist party.

He said he is unsure if he has been sacked from the council or from Umno, Utusan Malaysia reported today.

"All I know is they've removed me from the Umno supreme council WhatsApp group last night,” he told the Malay daily, adding that he would not want to comment further until he has the official letter in hand.

Rumours of Isham’s sacking started Wednesday night when the latter defied a call from party president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to attend the Umno supreme council meeting here to explain his criticism about the top echelon’s decision to work with old political foe DAP, as a part of the coalition government led by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan, a member of the Umno supreme council, told Malay Mail yesterday that the party had terminated Isham’s party membership.

Isham claimed he had long been aware he was on a black list for criticising Umno’s cooperation with Pakatan Harapan (PH).

He said his views against working with PH, especially its DAP component, was well known but denied that he told grassroots supporters not to vote for the candidates fielded by its former nemesis-turned-ally in last September’s Pulai parliamentary and Simpang Pulai state by-elections in Johor.