Updated - Adds PN call for change in the way how the police commissioner is appointed - Police Commissioner Michael Cassar has resigned with immediate effect because of health reasons, the government said today.

The prime minister thanked him for his service and accepted his resignation with regret, the government said.

Assistant Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar has been appointed Acting Commissioner.

Mr Cassar was appointed police chief in December 2014, the fourth since the 2013 general election.

He had a long career in the police force, distinguishing himself in the drug squad. He was head of the Security Service when he was asked to head the police force when Acting Commissioner Ray Zammit was removed in the wake of the controversy over a shooting by the driver of former minister Manuel Mallia.

The other officers to have served as commissioners in this legislature were John Rizzo, Peter Paul Zammit and Ray Zammit.

See the resignation letter on pdf below.

The Nationalist Party said that the fact that Malta would soon have the fifth police commissioner in three years showed the state which the police force had been reduced to because of Dr Muscat's mistaken policies. 

That the police force was in crisis was shown by the fact that no investigation was made into the Panama scandal. 

The PN insisted that the manner of appointment of the police commissioner should change and he should be appointed by two-thirds majority in Parliament, as it had proposed in its good governance document.