The House of Representatives is expected to take a second reading vote on a bill to ban Female Genital Mutilation when it meets this evening after the Christmas recess. The Bill has been piloted by Labour MP Chris Fearne. It bans female genital mutilation in all cases in Malta and on Maltese abroad.

The attention of observers will however, be mostly diverted away from the main debate.

At the start of the sitting, the Speaker, Anglu Farrugia, is expected to announce the decision of the Commission for the Administration of Justice on an impeachment motion against Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco.

The House Public Accounts Committee this evening also continues to question George Farrugia, the oil trader at the heart of the oil procurement scandal who was given a presidential pardon to reveal all. This is the third sitting of questioning by MPs.

The motion against Justice Farrugia Sacco was filed by then Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi in December 2012 after the judge and another Malta Olympic Committee official were rapped by the International Olympic Committee in the wake of an investigation by The Sunday Times of London into irregularities in the sale of Games tickets.

At the time, even though he had been ‘ordered’ by the commission to resign as MOC president in 2008, as this was deemed to be in breach of the code of ethics, Mr Justice Farrugia Sacco insisted he had done nothing wrong and remained in his post.