Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told Parliament last night that although the head of the CHOGM Task Force for 2015 had been chosen “differently” from the way the selection had been made in 2005, he was very happy with the progress being achieved.

He was replying to a question from Jason Azzopardi (PN), who asked whether the qualifications of the present chairwoman, Phyllis Muscat, were comparable to those of career diplomat Salv Stellini, who was chosen to head CHOGM in 2005.

Dr Muscat said it was a fallacy of elitism that such posts should always be filled by men or Nationalist Party stalwarts.

The government was proud to have selected Ms Muscat and very happy with the progress being achieved with CHOGM.

In 2005, a diplomat was selected, together with a number of other people coming from different strata.

This time the government had gone for a person such as Ms Muscat, who had the help of several diplomats, he said.

This is not the first time that Dr Muscat has come to the defence of Ms Muscat, having expressed “complete faith” in her following an interview with The Sunday Times of Malta in which her basic knowledge of the event appeared to be lacking.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.