Hasina's daughter quits as WHO regional lead
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Saima Wazed, the daughter of former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Southeast Asia, resigned from her position on Wednesday, according to her resignation letter seen by Reuters. The resignation comes after fraud investigations by both the United Nations agency and Bangladeshi authorities.
The case highlights how the political fallout from her father's ouster following a deadly uprising in mid-2024 has extended to her family members, including her political allies. Many of Hasina's allies are facing criminal charges, including allegations of corruption in Bangladesh or have chosen self-imposed exile like Hasina herself.
Wazed, who took office as the regional director for the WHO in early 2024 for a five-year term, was placed on unpaid administrative leave late last year. She was initially sent on leave in July the previous year after Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission filed charges against her in March alleging fraud and forgery related to her travel to China and misrepresentation of academic credentials.
Wazed has denied these allegations. The WHO accused her of illegally acquiring a plot of land in Bangladesh, which Wazed claims she owned before joining the WHO and was entitled to under a Bangladeshi law that covered the families of the country's independence leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. In her resignation letter to WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Wazed stated that she had sincerely served her region and was forced to step aside due to the inability to effectively carry out her duties and her financial situation becoming untenable following a year of unpaid leave.
Written by urgent.news from New Straits Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
