Opposition MP Simon Busuttil was not in breach of standing orders when he expressed his continuing belief that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat owned Egrant, a claim which caused uproar in parliament a few days ago.

Responding to Government Whip Byron Camilleri’s request for a ruling on the matter, Speaker Anġlu Farrugia said that there was “a fine line” between normal political bickering and breach of privilege.

Watch: 'I still believe Muscat owns Egrant,' Busuttil says, amid uproar

Dr Busuttil had largely expressed his “personal opinion” with respect to Egrant. However, Dr Farrugia called for the MP to withdraw comments which could be construed as an accusation that the Prime Minister had tampered with or had been involved in the tampering with of evidence. This included comments implying that the delay before the police arrived at Pilatus Bank had given time for documents to be stolen away from Pilatus Bank by Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, which had not resulted from examination of the bank’s CCTV footage.

Pointing out that Government MPs had interrupted Dr Busuttil no less than 13 times during his adjournment speech, Dr Farrugia called for restraint to be exercised and for all members to be cautious about the language which they chose to use. He reaffirmed his intention to disallow MPs to use points of order for political bickering.

In the meantime, a fresh accusation of breach of privilege was made by Economy Minister Chris Cardona, who objected to a Facebook post by Opposition MP Jason Azzopardi. However, Dr Azzopardi insisted his tweet had not made specific reference to the minister, asking why Dr Cardona had assumed that the tweet had been intended to refer to him.