Islamabad: The Islamabad Healthcare Regulatory Authority has seen its second permanent Chief Executive Officer resign within a year, with officials confirming on Thursday that Dr Syed Ahmed Raza Kazmi, appointed earlier this year, has been ‘forced’ to step down.
Although Dr Kazmi cited his mother’s illness as the reason for stepping down, IHRA board members claimed he was asked to resign to avoid formal termination after months of criticism over his performance. The development has deepened concerns about governance failures and conflict of interest inside the body responsible for regulating the capital’s healthcare sector.
Dr Kazmi joined the authority in January 2025 after the resignation of former CEO Dr Quaid Saeed, a widely respected professional who led IHRA through several tough regulatory decisions and clamped down on violations by private hospitals.
Officials close to Dr Quaid said he was left with no option but to resign after powerful private hospital groups lobbied for a Board that would be more favourable to them. The newly constituted Board was ultimately headed by a chairman who owns a private hospital and a medical college, triggering immediate questions of conflict of interest.
IHRA insiders said Dr Kazmi’s appointment had been controversial from the outset as he was selected from Karachi despite the Sindh Healthcare Commission declining to extend his earlier contract on grounds of unsatisfactory performance.
Within months of taking charge, officers said he turned one of the most active regulatory authorities into a dormant office, delaying enforcement actions and slowing routine inspections. Several Board members privately complained that he lacked the capacity to lead a regulatory system managing dozens of hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres in the federal capital.
Earlier this year, the current Board also terminated 16 staff members it had appointed months earlier, stating that their performance was not satisfactory. Officials said this added to internal concerns about decision-making within the authority.
According to senior officials, the same pattern played out again. The IHRA Board that had chosen Dr Kazmi eventually decided to remove him and he was told to submit his resignation to avoid a formal termination order after his performance reportedly became indefensible. In his resignation letter, however, he cited his mother’s serious illness and said he needed to provide full-time care, a claim insiders dispute.
Despite repeated attempts, Dr Kazmi did not respond to messages seeking his version on whether he was pressured to resign.
The authority has now slipped into a governance crisis at a time when parliamentarians are openly calling for the removal of the IHRA Board chairman due to his clear conflict of interest.
Both the National Assembly and Senate standing committees on health have recommended to the federal government and the prime minister that the chairman be replaced with an independent professional. Members said the current structure compromises patient safety and undermines public trust because the regulator is being overseen by individuals who themselves run large private hospitals.
Amid this turbulence, IHRA has advertised the position of a permanent CEO once again. Lawmakers have already questioned the move, saying no credible or competent professional will accept the role as long as the Board remains dominated by individuals with vested interests.
They warned that unless the government reforms the Board and restores confidence in the authority, the capital’s healthcare system will continue to suffer and the regulatory body will remain ineffective.
Officials within IHRA said the latest resignation exposes a broader structural problem rather than individual failures. They said a regulator cannot function when its leadership is being pushed out under pressure from private hospital groups while parliament and health committees raise red flags about conflict of interest at the top.
Ends