Saima Wazed, Regional Director of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) South-East Asia Region, has proceeded on indefinite leave from Friday (July 11, 2025), the world well being physique’s spokesperson confirmed to The Hindu on Saturday (July 12, 2025) in an e-mail response.
The WHO didn’t reply to the query of why Ms. Wazed had proceeded on leave. Catharina Boehme is serving as officer-in-charge in Ms. Wazed place.
The transfer follows Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission submitting instances in opposition to Ms. Wazed for fraud, forgery, and misuse of energy. Ms. Wazed is the daughter of the former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled the nation in August 2024.
Ms. Saima Wazed’s appointment as Regional Director has additionally been below query, with charges of having used her mom’s affect throughout the marketing campaign, and of offering false data on her tutorial report throughout in her candidature for the put up, allegedly violating Section 468 of the Bangladesh Penal Code (forgery for the function of dishonest), and Section 471 (forging a doc).
According to the WHO’s web site, Ms. Wazed took workplace as the WHO Regional Director for the South-East Asia Region on February 1, 2024, for a five-year time period. In this position, Ms. Wazed has been mandated to direct worldwide well being work in 11 international locations, an space with a inhabitants of over two billion folks.
Prior to taking over this position, Ms. Wazed served as advisor on psychological well being and autism to the WHO Director-General, and was a member of the WHO’s skilled advisory panel on psychological well being, her web site states.
Ms. Wazed is a licensed college psychologist, nationally licensed in the U.S. She was additionally Chief Advisor for the Bangladesh authorities’s National Mental Health Strategic Plan; Chairperson of the National Advisory Committee on Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Bangladesh; and focal particular person for folks with disabilities in the Bangladesh Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.
