Updated | [WATCH] Gordon Pisani told me not to go to Police Commissioner – JPO

Adds reaction by Gordon Pisani, 10:47am.

Newly-independent MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando told Reporter presenter Saviour Balzan yesterday that the Prime Minister's communications chief Gordon Pisani had stopped him from going to the Police Commissioner with his rental contract for the Spin Valley disco on his Mistra land, during the 2008 general elections.

Pullicino Orlando claimed that Gordon Pisani had told him: "We are GonziPN and not 'JPO-PN'," referring to the electoral slogan of 2008.

At the time, Pisani was the PN's director of information.

In a comment to MaltaToday, Pisani said the MP's allegations were "completely untrue".

"I reiterate that the Nationalist Party only became aware of the existence of the contract involving Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando on Thursday 6 March 2012. Pullicino Orlando was immediately advised to meet the Commissioner of Police and present him with a copy of the contract revealed by Alfred Sant earlier during the same day."

Pullicino Orlando was reacting to the recent publication of a transcript of a telephone call between Pisani and himself on the last day of the 2008 electoral campaign when Labour leader Alfred Sant revealed the Mistra contract during a TV debate with Lawrence Gonzi. The contract had proved Pullicino Orlando's link with the disco applicants, whom he had denied knowing.

The transcript was read out by Pisani during the PN executive committee meeting of 17 July that cleared chief PN strategist, and former EU ambassador, Richard Cachia Caruana, of charges of collusion by Pullicino Orlando, in a bid to prove that the MP had been economical with the truth when he did not reveal the Mistra contract back in 2008.

"What Pisani failed to say was that two days before that conversation [4 March, 2008], I had told him I wanted to hand over this famous contract to the Police Commissioner," Pullicino Orlando said. "But he stopped me and I remember him saying that he didn't want to put more focus on me, and that we were not 'JPO-PN' but GonziPN."

Pullicino Orlando said that when former Labour leader Alfred Sant had asked the Police Commissioner to investigate the Mistra case, he had no problem in presenting the contract to the police "because much fuss was being made about nothing".

Pullicino Orlando admitted that he had "procrastinated" in meeting Pisani when he called him on Thursday, because he first wanted to meet with his lawyer. "For the first time I felt that I should seek legal advice. So I told them I was sick so I could go to visit my lawyer, Alex Perici Calascione. I had nothing to hide, but I knew that they were looking at me as their possible scapegoat had the PN lost the election," he said.

Pullicino Orlando said that Perici Calascione accompanied him to Pietà and told the PN that there was nothing wrong with the contract. "Obviously, Pisani didn't give all this background information last week when addressing the executive. But I know that their motive was for me to deny that conversation and then turn it against me as the executive meeting was being recorded," Pullicino Orlando said.

The former Nationalist MP added that he never denied the conversation he had with Pisani, but what annoyed him the most was that the conversation had been recorded, that the transcript had been presented and that it had been leaked to everyone "through a very organised manner by the PN."

Pullicino Orlando said that the telephone conversation had been "twisted" by Pisani to use it to his own advantage and put him [Pullicino Orlando] in bad light and tarnish his credibility.

Pullicino Orlando also admitted that he had expected the executive meeting, which discussed his accusations against Cachia Caruana to have colluded with Labour ministers in the 1990s, to be "more correct".

"I surely didn't expect Austin Gatt to say he was prepared to take a false oath against me. I was grilled by four or five lawyers for four hours over a subject which had nothing to do with what we were meant to discuss," he said.

Of Pisani, Pullicino Orlando said that he felt he had been deceived: "I used to have a good relationship with Pisani but his attitude towards me has been very disloyal. It was immensely incorrect of him to record me and then twist my words around."

The Zebbug MP said that he took the decision to resign from the PN very serenely and that his decision was final.

After resigning from the PN, Pullicino Orlando told Lawrence Gonzi that he would still be supporting government to make sure that it completes its electoral programme. He however placed the condition that he would want Gonzi to consult him before implementing any measures that were not listed in the manifesto.

"There's nothing out of the world in my request... at the end of the day the Prime Minister should do this any way with his parliamentary group," he said.

Pullicino Orlando went on to say that he felt that he shouldn't resign his seat in parliament to respect the will of the some 5,000 voters who had elected him to parliament. "Moreover, I kept in mind that there had been those who had already wanted me to resign a few days after the election but I never succumbed to that pressure. Then again, should the other MPs who have vociferously expressed their disagreement with Gonzi's way of doing politics resign as well?"

Pullicino Orlando admitted that what annoyed him most wasn't that these MPs didn't support him but, that there were some who "attacked" him. "I'm not interested in exposing any names. But yes it did annoy me that there was someone who tried to cast a doubt on my motives when in actual fact it was his [motives that were doubtful]," he said.

Pullicino Orlando said that during the executive meeting, someone had also accused him of making leakages to the press.

Asked by Saviour Balzan whether he regretted having supported Lawrence Gonzi during the leadership election committee, Pullicino Orlando said that at the time he felt he had taken the right decision. "At that moment I felt that I should support Lawrence Gonzi," Pullicino Orlando replied.

"Even though I have great respect for him, and the channels between us are still open, the party has meanwhile been hijacked by elements of doing politics that are alien to me."

Asked whether Gonzi was a good or bad leader, Pullicino Orlando simply said: "it's up to the people to judge him."