Updated 1pm with government reaction:

Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil has called a parliamentary group meeting for tomorrow to discuss the "latest scandals" enveloping the Prime Minister's Office, especially the Libyan medical visas scandal.

The statement was released shortly after the Labour media published a statement claiming that an urgent meeting had been called to discuss the mounting pressure on Dr Busuttil as party leader. 

The Prime Minister was getting entangled in his own lies where it came to the Libyan medical visas scandal, the Nationalist Party said. 

The Sunday Times of Malta revealed last month allegations by a Libyan whistle-blower that Health Ministry official Neville Gafa ran a medical visa racket charging Libyans thousands of euros to get into Malta. Mr Gafa denies the allegations.

The Malta Independent on Sunday yesterday reported that Joseph Muscat was aware of the corruption allegations related to the scandal. Dr Busuttil said yesterday that the Prime Minister has been aware of the allegations for at least a year because he had alerted the Security Committee. 

Still, Dr Muscat first said he was unaware of the scandal, and in the next sentence said he was aware of it and had relayed the case to the police, the PN said in the statement. 

Speaking to the Indepenent, Health Minister Chris Fearne said it was the permanent secretary who relayed the case to the police.

"This is a big scandal, like many others in this legislature, because it was cooked up at Castille by an individual who is close to the Prime Minister's chief of staff and Minister Konrad Mizzi, both of who had opened secret accounts in Panama."

Busuttil trying to fool people - government 

The Opposition leader was trying to fool people by saying he had called a meeting over a "lie he had cooked up himself", rather than admit it was being held to discuss his precarious position, the government said in a statement. 

For the second time in this legislature, the Opposition leader had referred to discussions held during a meeting of the Security Committee, something which had never happened before.

"We will not reveal what was discussed during the committee meeting, but if the Opposition leader is correct, it confirms that the government has always relayed any information for investigation. If the Opposition leader reads the statements in detail - without any distractions from the internal squabbles in his party - he wouldn't make such mistakes," the government said. 



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