Simon Busuttil has appealed Speaker Anglu Farrugia's decision to rule against him regarding the permission to ask parliamentary questions about the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff Keith Schembri

In a parliamentary sitting last Wednesday, Farrugia quoted established procedure in the House of Commons in the UK and insisted that allowing Busuttil to continue on these questions would go against his duty to ensure that order is kept in the house, explaining that PQs directed at ministers should specifically relate they responsibilities, and not be based on media reports.

Reacting to the Speaker's decision, Busuttil described the decision as 'unprecedented'.

"The Speaker has confirmed that I cannot ask the PM if his Chief of Staff has a bank A/C in Dubai and Pilatus Bank. This decision is absurd and dangerous because it takes away my right as MP to keep the Govt under scrutiny. This is how democracies start to die," he tweeted.

In his appeal, Busuttil, who is the PN's Spokesperson on Good Governance, claims that the questions concerning these accounts, which were subject to money laundering investigations from the FIAU, were pertinent given that the PM, who in a parliamentary democracy is subject to parliamentary scrutiny, is responsible for his chief of staff, who is paid through public funds. 

Describing the decision as 'unconstitutional' which went contrary to democratic principles, he elaborated that the Speaker, in applying the standing order, went against another preventing the censorship of an MP.