An interview aired on the Nationalist Party media with a man claiming to be the ex-barman fired by Labour deputy leader Toni Abela in 2010 exposed the PN’s hypocrisy, Dr Abela charged yesterday.

They’re trying to take away my political integrity. But they won’t succeed

“If this is the same man the PN has been saying I should have reported to the police, why did they not do so themselves? Instead, they masked his face and voice and interviewed him to get political mileage,” he said when contacted for a reaction.

Dr Abela has come under pressure to resign following audio recordings uploaded on You Tube. In the recordings, he tells party functionaries that, following reports of a man being caught “cutting up a white block” in a PL band club kitchen, he had fired the barman in charge but not reported the matter to the police.

The PL deputy leader has said turning to the police would have caused the committee members who came to him with the information unnecessary trouble. But PN deputy leader Simon Busuttil has accused Dr Abela of “protecting a drug trafficker”, and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has called for his resignation.

But Dr Abela yesterday argued that the PN – by interviewing the former barman and protecting his identity – had failed to practise what it preached.

“If they wanted to be consistent, instead of interviewing him they would have sent him straight to the police commissioner,” he said.

In the interview reported by the PN media, the ex-barman said he had been fired by the band club committee and not Dr Abela, who later approached him with a token gift of a Dom Mintoff DVD “to ensure things stopped there”.

The unnamed barman also alleged he had been made a scapegoat to cover up for a committee member’s son, who he said regularly took drugs in the club kitchen.

Dr Abela admitted it was the club committee that fired the barman, rather than himself directly. “I gave an order that they were to fire him. I wanted him out,” he said.

He dismissed the other allegations. “He can say what he likes. If one day he decides to speak out without hiding his face, people will be able to gauge my credibility against his.”

Dr Abela again professed his innocence. “The barman was responsible for the entire bar. He knows what was going on in that kitchen. He was the one there, not me.”

He felt accusations being levelled at him had started taking on the semblance of a witch hunt.

“They’re trying to take away my political integrity. But they won’t manage. I’ve been honest, just and innocent throughout this affair.”