Simon Busuttil wants the Justice Minister to resign, accusing him of failing to protect the Constitution after a blunder over the appointment of two magistrates.

Interviewed on Radio 101 yesterday, the Opposition leader said Justice Minister Owen Bonnici should shoulder responsibility and resign.

However, Dr Busuttil was unclear when asked by the Times of Malta whether he would follow up his call with a no confidence motion in Parliament to seek Dr Bonnici’s removal.

“It is for the Prime Minister to draw the necessary political conclusions and the Opposition will see to it that he does,” a spokesman for Dr Busuttil said.

As the Opposition upped the ante on the matter, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat ignored the matter altogether in an interview on One Radio yesterday.

The Commission for the Administration of Justice on Friday advised the Prime Minister there was a possibility that Ingrid Zammit Young, who chaired the Employment Commission, was not eligible to be made magistrate. She later wrote to the Prime Minister saying she did not want to be considered for the post.

However, in his 30-minute interview Dr Muscat made no mention of the matter.

Speaking about the nomination of Dr Zammit Young and Caroline Farrugia Frendo as magistrates, Dr Busuttil said either Dr Bonnici was so incompetent he did not know what the Constitution said or he knew what it said and opted to ignore it, making matters worse.

The Opposition believes that even Dr Farrugia Frendo’s nomination is in breach of the Constitution. It is being argued that Dr Farrugia Frendo, the Speaker’s daughter, has not been a lawyer for seven years, as demanded by the Constitution.

Dr Busuttil wondered if the government was really messing up big time or whether it was simply creating smokescreens to make people forget previous scandals.

* Additional reporting Kurt Sansone