The tale of Hasina’s Daughter Putul
- Resigned from WHO Amid Corruption and Fake Certificate Allegations
- Joy Renounces Bangladeshi Citizenship, Takes US Citizenship
Stalin Sarkar
A notable line from novelist Manik Bandyopadhyay’s novel “Putul Nacher Itikatha” reads, roughly, that in this world one wants one thing but gets another — we are but puppets, with someone pulling the strings from behind the scenes. Can one find similarities between the characters of that novel and the character of Ms. Saima Wazed Putul? Fascist Sheikh Hasina abused power and considered herself untouchable. Having seated herself in power through three rigged elections backed by India, she spent hundreds of crores of taka of state money trying to elevate her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, to a status comparable to that of the prophets (God forbid). She appointed her son, Mr. Sajeeb Wazed Joy, as the Prime Minister’s unpaid adviser on information and communication technology (ICT) under the guise of “expert,” paying him several lakh taka in salary.
With India’s patronage, she got her daughter, Ms. Saima Wazed Putul, elected as Regional Director for South-East Asia of the World Health Organization (WHO) by presenting a fake “PhD degree” certificate. She would routinely belittle the wife and children of her political opponent, martyred President Ziaur Rahman, calling them “uneducated and illiterate,” while boasting about her own children’s higher education abroad. But fate has played a bitter joke: much like in the story “Putul Nacher Itikatha,” Sheikh Hasina’s fate too shows that “someone is pulling the strings from behind the scenes.” With both her son and daughter now divorced, there is nothing left of family happiness for them. Her son, Mr. Sajeeb Wazed Joy, surrendered his Bangladeshi passport and took US citizenship. Her daughter, Ms. Saima Wazed Putul, has resigned from the post of WHO’s South-East Asia Regional Director over allegations of irregularities, corruption, and forged certificates.
Ms. Saima Wazed Putul, daughter of fugitive, death-sentenced, ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (removed from power in the July uprising), has been forced to resign from her post as WHO’s South-East Asia Regional Director. She was compelled to resign following allegations of corruption, fraud, and abuse of power. Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission filed a corruption case against her, following which the UN agency WHO placed her on unpaid leave last July. On September 9, Ms. Putul submitted her resignation letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
It has been learned that WHO brought allegations against Ms. Saima Wazed Putul regarding financial fraud related to her trip to China, as well as providing false information about her academic qualifications (a fake PhD). This information was mentioned in a separate letter sent to WHO on July 3. At the same time, in her September 9 resignation letter, Ms. Putul noted that WHO had also accused her of illegally acquiring a plot of land in Bangladesh.
Ms. Saima Wazed Putul stated that she had acquired this land before joining the UN agency, and that she received the land through her family under a law applicable to members of the family of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, leader of Bangladesh’s independence struggle.
Ms. Saima Wazed Putul took charge as the UN agency’s regional director for a five-year term in February 2024. She was supposed to serve in that post until January 2029. Earlier, in November 2023, backed by India, Ms. Putul defeated Nepal’s candidate, Mr. Shambhu Prasad Acharya, for the post of WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia — even though Mr. Acharya was the qualified candidate for the post, while Ms. Putul was not.
When Bangladesh nominated Ms. Saima Wazed Putul for the post of WHO regional director, it stirred considerable controversy. Questions were raised in various quarters about how “suitable” she was for the post. The internationally renowned medical journal The Lancet, in a September 2023 editorial, questioned Ms. Putul’s nomination. It noted a lack of transparency in candidate selection in certain regions, and also raised the question of whether Ms. Putul was a suitable candidate for the post. The editorial further stated that the selection of an unsuitable candidate raises questions not only about the legitimacy of the selection process, but also about the credibility of regional directors more broadly.
The regional director, based at WHO’s Delhi head office, oversees a budget of 500 million dollars for two billion people across 11 countries — Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Thailand, Indonesia, North Korea, and Timor-Leste. Bangladesh’s nomination of Ms. Saima Wazed Putul as its candidate for South-East Asia regional director drew allegations of nepotism, since the candidate was the daughter of then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. At the time, the other candidate for the post alongside Ms. Putul was Nepal’s Mr. Shambhu Acharya, a senior WHO official who had worked there for 30 years and held a PhD in public health. Ms. Saima Wazed Putul, on the other hand, worked on mental health awareness, with most of her work focused on autism.
Britain’s Financial Times, in a September 2023 report, questioned Ms. Putul’s nomination, raising the issue of how suitable she was for the post. The report noted that Ms. Putul was trained as a school psychologist and oversaw a charitable and research organization, but lacked experience managing a large budget at an international organization — even though WHO regional directors are considered among the world’s most influential health policymakers, given their responsibilities in responding to disease outbreaks and emergencies and implementing WHO policy in line with local conditions.
Ms. Putul, who secured her UN post through India’s patronage and her mother’s influence, was placed on mandatory leave after facing allegations of corruption, irregularities, and certificate forgery. After a prolonged period of mandatory leave, WHO began planning to formally remove Ms. Saima Wazed Putul. Sensing this, she submitted her resignation to WHO on September 9. In her resignation letter, Ms. Saima Wazed Putul wrote that she had been elected regional director to serve the countries of her region and had done so with integrity; since the Director-General (Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus) had continued to prevent her from properly carrying out her duties, she had lost confidence and trust in his leadership at WHO. She wrote that after being placed on unpaid leave, she had gone a year without salary or remuneration, leaving her financial situation unbearable, and that under these circumstances she had decided to step down. Earlier, in a letter last July, Ms. Saima Wazed Putul, through her lawyer, had denied the fraud allegations related to her China trip, stating at the time that the error had been made by an administrative official who handled routine bill-payment applications, and that the amount involved was 901 dollars. Regarding the allegations about her academic qualifications, she had told the WHO Director-General that she had received an “honorary doctorate” in recognition of her work on autism in Bangladesh.
Ms. Saima Wazed Putul, a mother of four, is a single mother. She ended her roughly 25-year marriage to her husband, Mr. Khandaker Masrur Hossain Mithu, through a negotiated divorce in July 2026. Media reports covered the terms of the separation agreement and matters related to legal guardianship of their minor children. Ms. Putul’s former husband, Mr. Khandaker Masrur Hossain Mithu, comes from a political family; his father, former minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, was an MP from Faridpur. Media reports indicate that Ms. Saima Wazed Putul and Mr. Khandaker Masrur Hossain Mithu had informally separated years earlier.
According to media reports, a large sum of “spirit money” from a mega-project was deposited in a Dubai bank account in the names of Mr. Khandaker Masrur Hossain Mithu and Ms. Saima Wazed Putul. Mr. Mithu was arrested and jailed after failing to provide proper information about the source of that money, and he remained in a Dubai prison for several years. According to media reports, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself, along with then-Finance Minister A H M Mustafa Kamal, tried but failed to secure Mr. Mithu’s release from jail by traveling to Dubai. Subsequently, through the mediation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an understanding was reached that if Putul and Mithu separated, his wife Ms. Saima Wazed Putul’s name would be removed from the case — following which Ms. Putul formally divorced Mr. Mithu on paper.
While Hasina’s daughter was thereby spared from the money-laundering case, dark days fell upon Mithu’s family. Hasina’s relative-by-marriage, Mithu’s father Mr. Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, fled to Sweden, while Mithu’s uncle was arrested and jailed as a suspect in a case involving 2,500 crore taka laundered by the president and general secretary of Faridpur Chhatra League; two Chhatra League leaders were later convicted in that case. Ms. Saima Wazed Putul currently resides in Delhi but is not staying with her mother, Sheikh Hasina. Several of Putul’s daughters are accustomed to a Western lifestyle in the United States.
Fascist Sheikh Hasina’s son, Mr. Sajeeb Wazed Joy, married American citizen Christine Overmyer on October 26, 2002. They have an adult daughter named Sofia. Mr. Sajeeb Wazed Joy and Ms. Christine Ann Overmyer have since divorced; their formal separation was completed around 2023 but was kept hidden. Mr. Sajeeb Wazed Joy acknowledged the divorce in a statement posted on his verified Facebook page on January 14, 2025, stating that he and Christine Overmyer were no longer married and had divorced. According to the post, he wrote that he and Christine were no longer married. According to various documents and information, Joy’s divorce was finalized by mutual consent, with Christine receiving 2 million dollars in compensation. Their daughter, Sofia, lives with her mother.
Hasina’s daughter, single mother Ms. Saima Wazed Putul, has already been sentenced to five years in prison by a Bangladeshi court in a case involving abuse of power to obtain a plot allocated by the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) in Purbachal. In April 2025, the court also ordered an Interpol arrest warrant against Ms. Putul over allegations of irregularities in plot allocation in the Purbachal New Town project. She is not alone — in these plot-allocation corruption cases following the mass uprising of the 24th, her mother, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her brother Mr. Sajeeb Wazed Joy, her aunt Sheikh Rehana, and Rehana’s daughter Tulip Siddiq have also received prison sentences of varying terms. Additionally, in April of last year, the court ordered the seizure of a flat in Gulshan registered in Ms. Saima Wazed Putul’s name over corruption allegations. Beyond this, she also faces cases related to events during the July mass uprising.
Meanwhile, 14 bank accounts belonging to Ms. Saima Wazed Putul’s Shuchona Foundation remain frozen. The total amount held across these 14 bank accounts is 48 crore 35 lakh 55 thousand 780 taka. According to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), these accounts held 48 crore 35 lakh taka as of November 24, 2024. The Shuchona Foundation, registered with the Department of Social Services, is located at House 8 on the old Road 32 in Dhanmondi — a building belonging to the Bangabandhu Memorial Trust. The ACC presented detailed information on the foundation’s 14 bank accounts to the court and requested they be frozen. The ACC told the court that Ms. Saima Wazed, WHO’s South-East Asia regional director, is the daughter of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and that she used her mother’s power to commit fraud, embezzling funds from WHO and various government projects and laundering hundreds of crores of taka abroad.
Earlier, the central bank’s financial intelligence unit, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), had ordered the freezing of the Shuchona Foundation’s bank accounts.
Ms. Saima Wazed, who pursued higher education in psychology and mental health in the United States, founded the voluntary organization Shuchona Foundation and began awareness work on autistic children in Bangladesh.
Sheikh Hasina always belittled the family of Ziaur Rahman, the proclaimer of independence. She called Begum Khaleda Zia a mere matriculate who failed in mathematics, and noted Tarique Rahman never attended university — while boasting of her own children’s higher education abroad. Her oligarchs propagated the narrative that without Sheikh Hasina’s birth, “democracy in Bangladesh” would never have come, and that Sheikh Hasina was the “mother of humanity.” That same Sheikh Hasina is now a fugitive convict sentenced to death in a crimes-against-humanity case, trying to survive under the mercy of Hindutva-leaning India.
Her so-called highly educated son and daughter are both divorced, with nothing left of domestic peace and happiness in their lives. Fascist Hasina considered herself and her children the owners of Bangladesh — but what a cruel irony that, as in “Putul Nacher Itikatha,” someone indeed was “pulling the strings from behind the scenes.” Sheikh Hasina and her children are now feeling, in full measure, the roots of the fall that pride brings. She boasted of higher education, yet her daughter lost her job over allegations of certificate forgery. As the saying goes, the wheel of divine justice turns with the wind.
