Pakatan Harapan chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad has reiterated that the door is shut with regard to holding talks with PAS to avoid three-cornered fights in the upcoming general election.

However, he admitted that the letter from the coalition's de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim had caused problems as it provided the green light for PKR to continue engaging PAS.

"We will put a stop to that (negotiations).

"I hope so. I hope we can do that," Mahathir told a town hall session in Putrajaya this evening.

The former premier was responding to a question from the floor on the conflicting stands concerning the negotiations with PAS.

"We have decided as a group, no more dealings with PAS.

"But the statement by Anwar is that he urged them to try and continue talking with their old friends," he said.

Anwar had last week issued a letter from prison to urge PKR members to allow their leaders time to decide on the contentious issue.

The letter came four days after Harapan's presidential council resolved to end talks with PAS. 

Commenting further, Mahathir said there is no way that Harapan will accept PAS into the coalition as the party would insist on contesting in all the seats it was previously allocated in the 13th general election as a former member of Pakatan Rakyat.

"Not only (the seats) that they won but they contested. And that's about 60 seats.

"If they take all the 60 seats, what is there left for Amanah and for us that have no seat except for Muhyiddin?" he said in reference to his own Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president Muhyiddin Yassin who now remains to be Pagoh MP, a seat he held for seven-terms under a BN ticket.

PKR's internal rift on the issue of negotiations with PAS had escalated with party vice-president Rafizi Ramli's call for a special congress to allow its members to decide on the matter.

PAS, who has since formed its own Gagasan Sejahtera electoral pact, also reiterated that it would not have any political cooperation with Harapan despite Anwar's blessing.