Updated 7.45pm
Opposition Leader Adrian Delia has challenged the government to conclude the promised reform of the Constitution by the elections for the European Parliament and the local councils June 2018.
Dr Delia said that the discussions on constitution should be done before June 2019, in case a referendum were needed before the next election.
Read: Constitutional amendments needed to reinforce the rule of law, good governance
He was the first speaker in Parliament during a three-hour sitting dedicated to a discussion on the rule of law.
Dr Delia listed a number of cases where the police had dragged their feet, such as former Labour secretary general Jimmy Magro and Edward Caruana, accused of corruption at the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools, where the police finally took action 11 months after the claims were made.
He said that the National Party has proposed ways of improving the rule of law two years ago but insisted that the government was dragging its feet.
The PN leader gave a long list of the institutions that needed to be strengthened, from the police to the Attorney General’s Office, the Financial Analysis Intelligence Unit and the Malta Financial Services Authority. He also said that a specific magistrate should be appointed to investigate corruption as this would strengthen democracy in the country.
But Prime Minister Joseph Muscat insists that the reform is already in hand.
"From a Permanent Commission against Corruption four years ago that never made any decisions, we now have a commission that decides for and against without any interference. The Opposition has no credibility because under its administration these structures were dismantled," he said.
He challenged the Opposition to say on what model they were basing their demand that the police and attorney general should be chosen with the support of two-thirds of the Parliament.
"Just tell us one country where this principle is used!", adding that the proposal undermined its own goals by eroding the separation of powers between the Executive and the Legislature.
Dr Muscat said that the could would take on board the proposals being made by the Opposition which made sense, adding that calls for resignations "are just calls for scalps".
"I have strong reservations over whether - even if both sides of the House decide that a person should be removed - he should be removed if there is no objective basis.
"Let’s discuss these issues in the context of a Constitutional Convention, but not with the view of delaying. We will look at what can be done in the short term, the middle term and the longer term," he said, adding, however, that the June 2019 should not be imposed as a deadline because things might take longer to conclude.
More soon.