Updated 2.05pm
The Nationalist Party will be moving amendments to the proposed gay marriage law to retain the terms mother, father, husband and wife and add the term parent.
This was stated by PN leader Simon Busuttil in a brief telephone link on Radio 101 this morning.
But the PN proposal was quickly shot down by Helena Dalli's Civil Liberties Ministry, which in a statement said that such proposals nibbled away at equality by "creating distinctions between different types of couples."
"As the Prime Minister said this morning, this is a question of principle and therefore amendments of this sort will not be acceptable to the the government," the ministry said in its statement.
Dr Busuttil's comments were made in the wake of the controversial Bill, which is proposing to delete all existing references to the heterosexual family roles and replace them by spouse and parents.
Read: So what's this gay marriage bill all about?
Though both the PN and the PL had included the introduction of gay marriage in their manifesto, a number of PN MPs are objecting to the Bill, saying it goes beyond the government’s mandate.
On the other hand The Sunday Times of Malta today reported that Minister Helena Dalli, who piloted this Bill, is adamant on the introduction of gender neutral terms.
Read: Different terminology for gay couples in Marriage Equality Bill all but ruled out
Her statement was backed by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this morning who said that introducing a separate category for LGBTIQ people was not acceptable.
Read: Marriage equality 'a matter of principles, not political convenience' – PM
In his comments, Dr Busuttil said that all PN MPs had to vote in favour of the Bill, since the introduction of gay marriage had the backing of the electorate.
However, he questioned the Prime Minister’s call for unity, saying the Bill bore the signs of an attempt by the government to split the Nationalist Party.
“Once both sides want to vote in favour, let us seek a compromise, rather than try to score political points out of this issue,” Dr Busuttil said in a direct appeal to the Prime Minister.
The PN leader also reacted to the dismissal of two high-ranking officials from the government’s anti-money laundering agency – Financial Intelligence Agency Unit.
Read: FIAU officials were dismissed after minister’s 'written to be leaked' claim
He noted that he had presented evidence that the FIAU had reasonable suspicions that the Prime Minister’s top aide Keith Schembri committed money laundering. There were also reasonable suspicions on Minister Konrad Mizzi. Dr Busuttil said that the FIAU had at least two reports on these allegations.
Not only Mr Schembri and Dr Mizzi emerged unscathed and retained their posts, two FIAU officials were fired, he said.
The PN leader said the timing of the dismissal came on the heels of the Finance Minister’s remarks that these reports could have been written to be leaked.
“Government is purging all independent authorities of people of integrity,” he remarked.
“It is now official that the rule of law no longer applies to everyone in Malta,” he added.
De Busuttil said his only last hope was in the judiciary, saying there were three magisterial inquiries on these cases.
"They have all evidence in hand and the entire country is keenly awaiting their pronouncement on this matter," he added.