President’s Biography Returns, PM’s Page Still Empty After 211 Days

Several websites under Bangladesh’s national government web portal system continue to show inconsistent updates, incomplete biographies, outdated content and differences in official terminology. The issue has gained attention after the Cabinet Division issued a circular on September 9 asking government offices not to use honorific terms such as “Mahamanaya” and “Mananiya” before the titles of the President, Prime Minister, ministers, state ministers and deputy ministers in official communications, documents and summaries.

As of Thursday, September 17, 2026, a review of government websites found differences in how biographies, office-holder information and project data are maintained. The Bangladesh National Portal currently lists 57 ministries and divisions. Its footer says that information is regularly updated by the relevant offices and that the Cabinet Division, a2i, Bangladesh Computer Council, Department of ICT and BASIS are involved in planning and implementation.

Honorifics remain in older content

The September 9 circular concerns official correspondence, documents and summaries. It does not specifically order every historical web page to remove the terms immediately. However, older content on government websites still contains expressions such as “Mahamanaya” and “Mananiya”.

The Bangabhaban website, for example, still uses “Mahamanaya Rashtrapati” in its description of the constitutional role of the President. Its speech archive also retains titles from the previous presidency using the earlier terminology. At the same time, the website has added recent speeches and activities of President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

This indicates that the challenge is partly one of content consistency: new information is being added, while older pages and language are not always being revised at the same pace.

Biographies are not consistent

Another issue is the uneven availability of biographies of ministers, state ministers, advisers and senior officials. Some ministry websites provide biographies in Bangla, others in English, while several pages have incomplete information for office holders.

The review found examples where a minister’s biography is available but the secretary’s is missing, or where information for one or more political office holders is absent. Similar gaps were observed across portfolios including commerce, culture, defence, power and energy, environment, public administration, disaster management, youth and sports, and expatriate welfare.

President’s biography now available

One important point has changed since the initial observation. The official Bangabhaban website now has a dedicated biography page for President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. The page says he assumed office on August 21, 2026, and was last updated on September 16.

Therefore, the claim that the President’s biography is absent from the government web system is no longer accurate as of September 17.

The Prime Minister’s Office, however, has a dedicated “Biography of the Prime Minister” menu. The page currently displays the heading but no substantive biographical information. Its content shows a last update date of February 17, 2026.

The Prime Minister’s Office homepage identifies Tarique Rahman as Prime Minister, while its cabinet page lists the Prime Minister, ministers and state ministers with their assigned portfolios.

Older content remains

The Bangabhaban speech archive illustrates another aspect of the problem. It contains speeches from 2023 and earlier, including speeches by former President Md. Abdul Hamid, but also includes speeches delivered by the current President in August 2026.

Keeping historical records is not itself a problem. The issue is whether old content is clearly identified as historical and whether current information is sufficiently easy to find and navigate.

Project information also varies

The review also found differences in the availability and freshness of information on ongoing government projects. Some portals provide project lists but limited or outdated information about implementation progress, timelines or current status.

For a government web portal, such gaps can affect its usefulness as a reliable public information source, particularly when citizens use these websites to understand government programmes and services.

Multiple agencies are involved

The Cabinet Division’s published responsibilities include coordinating the updating of content on government websites under the Bangladesh National Portal. Its work-distribution documents also refer to monitoring e-services, the national portal and website-related activities.

The Cabinet Division also issued a separate notice in April 2025 concerning the updating of government websites with required information about officials.

The national portal itself identifies the Cabinet Division, a2i, Bangladesh Computer Council, Department of ICT and BASIS as organizations involved in its planning and implementation.

The findings therefore point less to a single technical failure and more to an ongoing content-governance and update-management challenge across a large network of government websites.

For a national digital-government platform, keeping office-holder information, biographies, project data, terminology and historical records accurate and consistently updated is essential to maintaining the reliability of official online information.
//DBTech/IH/NAP/MIS//