MPs appointed to the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE), Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) and the Public Finance Committee will be allowed to elect the respective chairpersons of these committees, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa told Parliament yesterday.

Prime Minister Rajapaksa came out with this remark when members of opposition questioned whether the government will keep the practice of appointing chairpersons to the said committees.

The question was raised by Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa and MP Nalin Bandara Jayamaha.

"There have been instances where the opposition members have been appointed as chairpersons of the committees such as COPE . However, we will allow members of these committees to elect the respective chairpersons," the Prime Minister said.

Leader of the House Dinesh Gunawardene also said that allowing the members of the committees to select chairpersons has been the tradition.

Mr. Premadasa questioned as to whether the government would uphold the Commonwealth tradition of appointing opposition MPs as chairpersons of important committees.

Minister Bandula Gunawardene said he entered the fray to compete for chairmanship of Public Finance Committee but was defeated by MP M. A. Sumanthiran who supported the previous government in 2015.

"I was defeated by an MP who supported the government," he recalled.

MP S. B. Dissanayke who also joined in the cross talk recalled that the chairmanship of COPA was held by the then government MP Lasantha Alagiyawanna.

"One cannot understand as to what the opposition wants to stress as Mr. Alagiyawanna who was a member of the previous government held the chairmanship of COPA," he said. (Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana)