WHO Regional Director Saima Wazed proceeds on indefinite go away within the wake of corruption prices in Bangladesh

Saima Wazed, Regional Director of the World Well being Group’s (WHO) South-East Asia Area, has proceeded on indefinite go away from Friday (July 11, 2025), the worldwide 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 go away. Catharina Boehme is serving as officer-in-charge in Ms. Wazed place.

The transfer follows Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Fee submitting circumstances in opposition to Ms. Wazed for fraud, forgery, and misuse of energy. Ms. Wazed is the daughter of the previous Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled the nation in August 2024.

Ms. Saima Wazed’s appointment as Regional Director has additionally been underneath query, with prices of getting used her mom’s affect through the marketing campaign, and of offering false info on her educational document throughout in her candidature for the put up, allegedly violating Part 468 of the Bangladesh Penal Code (forgery for the aim of dishonest), and Part 471 (forging a doc). 

Based on the WHO’s web site, Ms. Wazed took workplace because the WHO Regional Director for the South-East Asia Area on February 1, 2024, for a five-year time period. On this function, Ms. Wazed has been mandated to direct worldwide well being work in 11 nations, an space with a inhabitants of over two billion individuals.

Previous to taking over this function, Ms. Wazed served as advisor on psychological well being and autism to the WHO Director-Normal, and was a member of the WHO’s knowledgeable advisory panel on psychological well being, her web site states. 

Ms. Wazed is a licensed college psychologist, nationally licensed within the U.S. She was additionally Chief Advisor for the Bangladesh authorities’s Nationwide Psychological Well being Strategic Plan; Chairperson of the Nationwide Advisory Committee on Autism and Neurodevelopmental Problems in Bangladesh; and focal individual for individuals with disabilities within the Bangladesh Ministry of Catastrophe Administration and Reduction.