Islamabad: The Ministry of National Health Services has carried out a major reshuffle by removing Director General Health Prof Dr Ayesha Isani Majeed and Federal Directorate of Immunization (FDI) chief Dr Soofiya Younas through separate notifications issued on Wednesday, assigning their posts on additional charge to Dr Abdul Wali Khan and Dr Musa Khan respectively.
Dr. Musa Khan is the brother of federal minister Amir Muqam and recently, the federal minister had officially requested the health minister Mustafa Kamal to post his brother as Coordinator of donor-funded Common Management Unit (CMU) which looks after HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria.
According to the notifications dated December 10, 2025, Prof Dr Ayesha Isani Majeed, who was serving as Director General Health on additional charge, has been repatriated to her parent institution, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Islamabad, with immediate effect.
In a separate order, Deputy Executive Director of the Federal Government Polyclinic Islamabad, Dr Abdul Wali Khan, has been given additional charge of Director General Health for three months or until the posting of a regular incumbent, whichever comes first.
Another notification relieves Dr Soofiya Younas, Director Programmes in the Health Wing of the ministry, of her additional charge as Director General FDI with immediate effect, directing her to continue only as Director Programmes. The same order assigns the FDI’s Director General slot to Dr Musa Khan, Director Medical in the ministry, on additional charge for three months or until a regular officer is posted, and simultaneously relieves him of his attachment as Assistant Professor at the Federal Medical College.
Public records show that Prof Dr Ayesha Isani emerged as Director General Health around late August this year. Her removal on December 10 therefore ends a tenure of a little over three months, one of the shortest recent stints in this key position.
Prof Ayesha Isani had herself replaced Dr Shabana Saleem, who was serving as Director General Health and also looking after population and immunization matters. Government releases show Dr Shabana functioning as DG Health and FDI at least from November 2024, when she was introduced as Director General Health and Population during a United Kingdom Pakistan health partnership meeting, and still holding the same office at major tobacco control and climate events in June and July 2025. This indicates that Dr Shabana remained DG Health for roughly nine to ten months before being replaced by Prof Ayesha in late summer 2025. Dr. Ahmed Kazi, who served as DG FDI was also given the charge of DG Health briefly.
Before Dr Shabana, the DG Health slot was occupied by Dr Baseer Khan Achakzai, who is described as Director General at the Ministry of National Health Services in an official advisory body notified in August 2023, while earlier the post was held by Dr Rana Muhammad Safdar, who was appointed DG Health in January 2021 and is shown on official and partner records as serving in that capacity of ‘full-time’ DG through mid 2022, a tenure of about one and a half years.
For immunization, the latest reshuffle also closes a short chapter for Dr Soofiya Younas at the Federal Directorate of Immunization. The FDI’s own communications show that she assumed charge as Director General FDI on June 3, 2025, after more than a decade of work in the national immunization programme, and continued to appear as DG FDI in official engagements through the second half of the year.
Her removal on December 10 means she headed the federal immunization directorate for just over six months. Before her, DG Health Dr Shabana Saleem had been performing the dual role of Director General Health and FDI, according to government releases issued earlier this year.
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