Lawrence Cutajar has been appointed Police Commissioner after having served in an acting capacity for three months.
The appointment was announced by the Ministry of Home Affairs and immediately criticised by the PN.
Mr Cutajar became Acting Commissioner when Police Commissioner Michael Cassar resigned, citing health reasons.
Mr Cassar had been appointed police chief in December 2014, the fourth since the 2013 general election. The other officers to have served as commissioners in this legislature were John Rizzo, Peter Paul Zammit and Ray Zammit.
Following Mr Cassar's resignation, the government had dismissed a call by the Nationalist Party for the new Commissioner to be appointed by a two-thirds majority in parliament.
On May 8 Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said Mr Cutajar lacked integrity. He backed his argument by referring to a series of Facebook posts by Mr Cutajar which the PN leader deemed as “full of government praise and foul language”.
PN - A BAD CHOICE BY THE PRIME MINISTER
In a reaction to today's appointment, the shadow minister for home affairs, Beppe Fenech Adami said the prime minister had lost an opportunity for consensus to be reached on the appointment, and shown himself to be stubborn.
Dr Muscat was not interested in having a commissioner who enjoyed everyone's confidence. Mr Cutajar's only qualification was that he was a friend of the prime minister, Dr Fenech Adami said.
Dr Muscat has made a bad choice, because instead of seeking the national interest, he has chosen his own.- Beppe Fenech Adami
"Dr Muscat has made a bad choice, because instead of seeking the national interest, he has chosen his own," Dr Fenech Adami said.
He said that if the commissioner wanted to be taken seriously, the first thing he should do was to investigate minister Konrad Mizzi and chief of staff Keith Schembri over their secret Panama companies.
Mr Cutajar joined the police force in 1979 as a Probationary Police Constable and became a sergeant in 1983 and inspector a year later.
He was promoted superintendent in 2000 and assistant commissioner in 2014.
He served in several police stations and was serving in the Special Branch (Immigration) when he was appointed Acting Commissioner of Police in April.
In 2005 he was presented the Long & Efficient Service Medal, 1st clasp and the 2nd clasp in 2009.