The burqa controversy in Malta will be on the agenda of the next Nationalist Party parliamentary group meeting, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said this morning.

“Personally I do not think this is the most crucial topic to debate right now, but it is right to clarify the legality of the burqa with respect to existing laws,” the PN leader said when interviewed on Radio Malta programme Għandi Xi Ngħid.

The debate was stoked a few weeks ago by Equality Minister Helena Dalli during a political activity in Birżebbuġa, when she said the government was looking into an existing law that prevented people from covering their faces in public.

She noted that a Cabinet decision had been taken under the PN administration, which directed the police not to stop people wearing a burqa in public.

Without elaborating, she said the law made it clear that people could not wear a mask or change their appearance in a public place, and so the government had sought clarity on this issue.

A few weeks later, Opposition MP Clyde Puli called for a burqa ban in line with the aforementioned provisions of the law.

Meanwhile the Opposition leader also vouched for the integrity of Nationalist MP Joe Cassar who set off the acquisition of a second-hand vehicle in 2012 from Joe Gaffarena against a €1,000 donation to the Nationalist Party.

Dr Busuttil insisted that the media reports surrounding Dr Cassar’s acquaintance with property entrepreneur Joe Gaffarena were “nothing but Joseph Muscat’s attempts at deviating attention from the real scandals”.

 

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