PN denies Muscat claims on its compensation proposals

The Nationalist Party said today that it was ironic that the prime minister yesterday turned down its proposals on party funding in a house ‘stolen’ by the Labour Party from private owners. Dr Muscat spoke in Ghaxaq, where he rejected a proposal by the PN for it to be compensated for the use by the Labour Party of a string of premises taken over from the government and private owners, unless the properties were returned to their owners. Last week PN General Secretary Chris Said said that in considerations over party funding, the political parties should be on a level playing field. However the PN was at a disadvantage because the PL had taken over 28 properties from the government or private owners and was using them for itself. He proposed that the PN should be compensated for the financial income which the PL was making from those properties. The Prime Minister yesterday rejected the suggestion, saying the issue was several years old and there were several court cases. The PL, he said, would obey the law and court decisions. The PN, he said, would have been more serious had it called on the government to return the properties at issue to their owners, instead of seeking...