Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando says former Nationalist general secretary Joe Saliba should be ashamed of the way he treated him in the aftermath of the Mistra case.

The outspoken backbencher claims there was a movement from within the party to hound him out by turning public opinion against him.

He says he regrets blindly following orders from the party on the eve of the election – even though he claims that Mr Saliba had said Dr Pullicino Orlando had won the PN the election after the infamous PBS press conference with Alfred Sant.

He says: “I never expected the same people who used me to try to attack me, destroy my credibility and try to hound me out of parliament.”

Dr Pullicino Orlando also says he is informed that people within the Nationalist Party had leaked the Mistra story to the Labour Party and that an internal investigation was underway.

In his first interview since the court cleared two former Development Control Commission of exercising private interest in the adjudication of an outline permit for a development in Mistra, Dr Pullicino Orlando says his statements on the case were twisted beyond recognition.

He maintains he did nothing wrong in the infamous Mistra case, when a plot of land he owned was earmarked by a third party for development into a disco.

Dr Pullicino Orlando also says his government is going to repeat last year’s big mistake if it is about to issue higher water and electricity rates.

Watch excerpts of the interview by clicking the link above. Read the entire interview in today’s edition of The Sunday Times.