No comment by Joe Saliba over pre-election controversy

Former Nationalist general secretary Joe Saliba said yesterday he would not be commenting on the criticism levelled at him by PN backbencher Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando in an interview with The Sunday Times.

Dr Pullicino Orlando said Mr Saliba should be ashamed of himself for implying that he should resign because of the controversy involving a plot of land he owned in Mistra and which had been planned to be turned into a nightclub.

In the interview, Dr Pullicino Orlando also accused unnamed members of his party of "hounding" him and giving out misinformation even more than the Labour Party.

He said he had heard Mr Saliba say the "scandal" had won the party the election.

When contacted, Mr Saliba said he read the interview but had no comments to make.

The Magistrates' Court last week exonerated two former members of the Development Control Commission from any wrongdoing in the Mistra case.

Dr Pullicino Orlando, who had been named Green Politician of the Year before the issue broke out just before the election, insists he has done nothing wrong in the Mistra case.

His only regret, he said, was that he contributed to over-inflating the non-issue but he did so because he was blindly following party orders.

The Mistra Bay application became highly controversial before the last election after the Labour Party accused the Nationalist MP of corruption over the case.

The land in question is part of a protected tract in the Mistra area. In a report on the case, the planning authority's audit officer had heavily criticised the way the permit was issued and this eventually led to it being revoked.