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🇧🇩 Bangladesh /Health & Science

Is Bangladesh’s health ministry merger still on? New appointments raise fresh questions

From Daily Star · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Analysis Named sources New plan
  • Bangladesh has appointed separate secretaries to the Health Services Division and the Medical Education and Family Welfare Division, reversing an arrangement in which one secretary led both.
  • The appointments follow a January decision to merge the divisions, but officials disagree on whether the merger will continue.
  • The divisions were split in 2017, and an administrative review later found that the separation had widened coordination gaps and encouraged duplication.

Bangladesh’s health ministry once again has two secretaries, even though the government approved merging its two divisions earlier this year.

The Ministry of Public Administration appointed ANM Bazlur Rashid as secretary of the Health Services Division and AKM Benjamin Riazi as secretary of the Medical Education and Family Welfare Division. Quamruzzaman Chowdhury, who had served as secretary for both divisions, moved to the Ministry of Public Administration as its secretary.

The appointments came about eight months after the National Implementation Committee for Administrative Reorganisation, led by then interim chief adviser Muhammad Yunus, approved the merger in January. Officials said work had begun on creating posts and assigning responsibilities, but progress was slow.

My assumption is that the appointment of two secretaries could be a temporary arrangement to manage the divisions’ heavy workload and ongoing projects until the merger is completed.

— Unnamed additional secretaryAn official said the new appointments might not signal a reversal of the planned merger.

One additional secretary said the merger remained in progress and that the committee’s decision had not changed. The official suggested that the two appointments could be temporary, allowing the divisions to handle their heavy workloads and ongoing projects until the merger was completed. Another additional secretary offered a different reading, saying the appointment of separate secretaries indicated the merger might not happen.

The question follows the retirement of Medical Education and Family Welfare Secretary Sarwar Bari on Aug. 28, 2025. The government did not immediately appoint a replacement because officials said the merger was underway. A previous committee recommended the merger to improve coordination and medical services, while the interim government concluded that the 2017 split had instead widened coordination gaps and created duplication. Health Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Husain could not be reached for comment.

The appointment of two secretaries indicates that the merger may not happen.

— Unnamed additional secretaryAnother ministry official interpreted the appointments as evidence that the merger could be abandoned.
About this summary

Originally published by Daily Star in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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