It’s an attack on civilised people: Zardari

BAKU: In a strongly-worded message at the ECO Summit in Baku, President Asif Ali Zardari said the shooting of Malala was an attack on all girls in the country and on civilisation itself.

In some of his most poignant remarks on the incident to date, Zardari vowed not to let her shooting stop the nation’s drive to educate girls.

“The Taliban attack on the 14-year-old girl, who from the age of 11 was involved in the struggle for education for girls, is an attack on all girls in Pakistan, an attack on education, and on all civilised people,” Zardari said at the economic summit in the Azerbaijani capital.

“The work that she led was higher before God than what terrorists do in the name of religion. We will continue her shining cause,” he said.

Zardari said that such attacks would not deter Pakistan in its search for broader social justice. “Terrorists should not have an impact on our future. We ourselves must determine our future,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2012.