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Abu Obaidha Arin · 10:52 AM

The World Health Organization has spent more than a year avoiding a simple question. What, exactly, is Saima Wazed accused of, and why has she never been given the chance to answer it?

The World Health Organization has spent more than a year avoiding a simple question. What, exactly, is Saima Wazed accused of, and why has she never been given the chance to answer it? Wazed did not walk into the office of the WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia. She was elected to it in November 2023, receiving eight of the ten votes cast by the region's member states, a mandate confirmed afterward by WHO's Executive Board under Article 52 of the WHO Constitution. She took charge on Feb. 1, 2024, for a five-year term covering public health across nearly two billion people. That authority did not come from the WHO Director-General. It came from the governments of the region, through the only process WHO itself recognizes as legitimate. On July 11, 2025, WHO placed her on leave, according to The Daily Star and Anadolu Agency, following corruption and abuse-of-power allegations referred by Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission. More than fourteen months later, she remains on leave. No charge against her has been…

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