Updated 5.45pm - The Nationalist Party criticised the government this afternoon for delaying a meeting of the Security Committee to September 10.

The meeting will discuss the granting of residence permits after Joe Sammut was arraigned last week and charged with fraud and money laundering in setting up bogus companies to facilitate the granting of residence permits to hundreds of Libyans. Opposition leader Simon Busuttil called for the meeting yesterday, saying that what had taken place has security implications.

The PN said that earlier today Dr Busuttil received an invite to attend a Security Committee meeting on Thursday  Septembe 10.

"This is more than three weeks after Joe Sammut was arraigned in court revealing a scandal of mammoth proportions affecting the issuing of visas and residence permits by the national authorities," the PN said.

Dr Busuttil added: “This is a matter affecting our national security and our national security should not be left to wait for three weeks. National security is by definition a matter of urgency. The meeting should therefore be called urgently and not in three weeks.” 

The Security Committee includes the prime minister, the leader of the opposition and the heads of the army, the police and the security service.

A government spokesman earlier told Times of Malta that the  government never had a problem with convening the Security Committee, as it had done on a regular basis. 

Speaking on Nationalist Party radio yesterday, Dr Busuttil said the government should have also launched an inquiry to establish the facts behind the granting of residence permits to Libyans, more so as this was also a security matter and was likely to involve a network of people in the public service.

“Joseph Muscat needs to explain whether these visas will be revoked and what is being done to establish what happened in the institutions which issued these documents,” he said.