NEW DELHI: The World Health Organisation on Wednesday selected the daughter of Bangladesh’s prime minister to be its South-East Asia director, a month after she rejected criticisms of nepotism over her application.

Saima Wazed, 49, daughter of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was accused of using her mother’s clout to get nominated to the position, allegations she has denied.

“I look forward to building a healthier South-East Asia,” Wazed posted on X, formerly Twitter, after being selected for the post heading an 11-nation region home to a quarter of the world’s population.

The job is key to driving policy-making, with respected medical journal The Lancet saying the post was “among the most important roles in global health, especially in times of crisis”.

The Lancet said in September that Wazed’s candidature “raised questions over transparency and nepotism”, noting that every other nation had put forward candidates who were either medical doctors or held doctorates, or both.

Wazed posts on X “under the username @drSaimaWazed, presumably on the strength of an honorary doctorate she was awarded earlier this year by a Bangladeshi university named after her grandfather”, the Lancet added.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2023