KARACHI: Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal has described the grim reality of approximately 400 maternal deaths per 10,000 childbirths a “national priority”, calling the situation as “extremely alarming”.

He made these remarks on Saturday while inaugurating Karachi’s first end-to-end digitised health centre.

This initiative is part of a broader health digitalisation programme launched in collaboration with the digital telemedicine platform “Sehat Kahani.”

The federal minister said that under this scheme, six basic health units (BHUs) in Islamabad and four BHUs in Karachi will be digitalised to make the facility of specialist doctors available at the primary level.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2026