For four times in a row, disgraced former minister Konrad Mizzi has flipped the bird to the Public Accounts Committee and, indeed, to the entire country.

His refusal to appear before the Parliamentary committee to answer questions on his involvement in the controversial and potentially corrupt Electrogas deal is nothing but a slap in the face of those who cherish transparency and good governance.

Yet Mizzi’s former (are they?) Labour colleagues are doing everything in their power to defend him. They have consistently refused to back motions, put forward by the PN, which call on the entire committee to condemn Mizzi’s behaviour.

They do this on the pretence that what the PN is doing is a “political charade”, but the only charade we see is their refusal to condemn Mizzi just because he used to be one of them up until a few months ago.

During a heated sitting on Tuesday, the Labour MPs who form part of the PAC kept insisting that the PN motion was “unnecessary” because Mizzi has promised to show up for next week’s hearing anyway. They said the important thing is that he is notified about the sitting and that he actually shows up. They completely forgot that he has done that already, only to change his mind and stay at home. They conveniently forgot the fact that Mizzi has been playing games with the committee for weeks, with the result that its work has been stalled.

That the PL MPs still consider Mizzi as one of their own is by now very clear. It is also clear that his political history is still embarassing for the Labour Party and government, and they will do whatever they can to keep more details from coming out.

And this is the most worrying part. Refusing to condemn his actions is one thing, but how will they act once Mizzi actually shows up for the grilling? Will they play the gatekeeper, try to stall the committee and attempt to block potentially embarrassing questions?

It is safe to say that Mizzi, on the advice of his lawyer, will refuse to answer any questions that are put to him during the hearing – he has already done that in the past, in the Daphne Caruana Galizia public inquiry. The PN MPs will undoubtedly insist that he should answer. But how will their Labour counterparts behave? Will they defend Mizzi even then, when he limits himself to ‘no comment’ replies?

Will they stand for justice and transparency, or will they choose to protect their own party’s interests?

From the way things have been going recently, we are pretty sure that they will opt for the latter, that they will use the excuse that the Opposition is playing a partisan game. But they must not forget the fact that we all want to know how the shady Electrogas deal was concocted, who got what and how much we are really paying for it. They cannot forget the fact that the deal is still largely shrouded in mystery, particularly when it comes to the involvement of Yorgen Fenech and his 17 Black.

It is in the national interest for the truth to emerge once and for all, and for justice to be served if any corruption took place.

The Labour Party took a bold step when it kicked Mizzi out, but that is not enough. It must now cooperate with the Opposition and the authorities to uncover the truth and let justice take its course.