Former Nationalist MP in dig at his party over MPs' appointments

Former Nationalist MP Jean-Pierre Farrugia has taken a dig at his party over criticism of the government's plan to appoint MPs to go government boards and authorities. In a facebook post over the story published on timesofmalta.com yesterday, Dr Farrugia said people in glasshouses should not throw stones. It was for this reason, he said, that in 2010 he had refused executive posts both as a chairman or as a parliamentary assistant. He said the phrase 'people in glasshouses should not throw stones' applied to all those who opted to accept executive posts. Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said yesterday that the government's plan to remove legal bans on the appointment of MPs to government boards was rich, coming from Labour which had criticised the former government when ministers were awarded their honoraria as MPs. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat retorted that the government wanted to broaden the role of MPs - which could include Opposition MPs - and what was being proposed was far better than appointing parliamentary assistants with no specified role.