Parliament website’s English version gets Feni-3 MP’s party affiliation wrong

The English version of the parliament website has got Feni-3 MP Rahim Ullah’s party affiliation wrong.

Although he is an independent MP, the website, for the past two years, has shown him as an Awami League member.

The officer in charge of maintaining the website declined to comment when the flaw was pointed out. But a rectification, describing Rahim Ullah as an ‘Independent’ MP, followed soon afterwards.

But despite the change on the website’s home page, the MP’s detailed biography inside remained unaltered.  

The website’s Bangla version, however, shows him as an independent both on the home page and inside.

Rahim Ullah, who had been a businessman in Saudi Arabia for close to 30 years, had fought and won in the tenth parliamentary election held on Jan 5, 2014 as an independent candidate, albeit with the support of local Awami League leaders and activists.

In the election, which the BNP boycotted, the Awami League had not fielded any candidate for the Feni-3 seat, where Rahim Ullah’s main challenger was Jatiya Party contestant Rintu Anwar, party chief HM Ershad’s publicity and publication adviser.

Many have expressed dismay at the ‘big mistake’.

Feni Press Club President Nurul Karim Mazumdar said: “The national parliament is an institution created by the Constitution to make laws. It is unacceptable if its own website gives wrong information about an MP’s party affiliation. This is unfortunate.”

He wanted the data set right immediately.

Rahim Ullah himself said he was unaware of the mistake.

“I do not know how my party affiliation has been described. If there is a mistake, it should be corrected.”