The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is set to have two secretaries again, a year after it had been functioning with a single secretary amid a government move to merge its two divisions.
The Ministry of Public Administration today issued separate circulars appointing 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 been serving as secretary to both divisions, was appointed secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration today.
The development comes around eight months after the National Implementation Committee for Administrative Reorganisation (NICAR), led by the then interim government chief adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus, approved the merger of two divisions of the ministry in January this year.
Following the NICAR decision, work on merging the divisions, including creating posts and allocating responsibilities, was underway, albeit slowly, according to two additional secretaries of the ministry.
However, following the appointment of the two secretaries, the officials said they could not say whether the merger process would stall or continue.
After the then secretary of the Medical Education and Family Welfare Division, Sarwar Bari, retired on August 28, 2025, the government did not appoint his replacement. At the time, officials said this was because the merger process was underway.
The pre-NICAR committee, in its meeting on October 29 last year, recommended merging the two divisions to ensure better coordination and improved medical services for the people. The decision was endorsed by NICAR on January 20 this year.
Contacted, an additional secretary of the ministry said the merger process was still underway, and that the NICAR decision had not been changed.
“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,” the official said, seeking anonymity.
Another additional secretary, however, said much work remained to be done following the NICAR decision to merge the divisions.
“The appointment of two secretaries indicates that the merger may not happen,” the official said.
Health Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Husain could not be contacted for comments over phone in this regard.
In March 2017, the then government split the health ministry into two separate divisions -- the Health Services Division and the Medical Education and Family Welfare Division -- to improve health services management.
Various departments were reorganised and placed under the two divisions, each headed by a secretary.
But the interim government found that the split did not bring any benefit; instead, it increased the coordination gap and created scope for duplication of work.
Some health experts also suggested merging the two divisions.
They said primary healthcare services were divided between the two divisions. For example, Family Planning was placed under the Medical Education and Family Welfare Division, while Community Clinics and Union Health Centres were brought under the Health Services Division.
Similarly, medical colleges were put under the Medical Education and Family Welfare Division, while the hospital sections of those colleges were placed under the Health Services Division.
All these caused a lack of coordination and duplication, they said.
The latest appointments therefore raise questions about the status and timeline of the merger, and whether the two divisions will continue to operate separately until the approved restructuring is formally implemented.
