Special visit: Zardari lifts Malala’s spirits with tribute visit

Dr Dave Rosser informs president Malala is on the way to full recovery.

ISLAMABAD:


President Asif Ali Zardari paid a visit to peace icon Malala Yousafzai at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, United Kingdom, on Saturday.


The 15-year-old activist was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by the Taliban in Swat on October 9.

According to a press release issued by the president’s office, President Zardari, accompanied by his youngest daughter Aseefa Bhutto, paid the visit to inquire about Malala’s condition and also to express solidarity with her and laud her courage.


The medical director of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Dr Dave Rosser, informed the president that Malala was on the way to full recovery.

On the occasion, the president said the nation’s spontaneous response to the cowardly attack on her and her friends demonstrated that the people of Pakistan rejected extremism and militancy.

Pakistan is proud of Malala and her schoolmates Shazia and Kainat, he said, adding that the government was determined to equip children, particularly girls, with education.

Malala expressed her gratitude to the president and Aseefa for visiting her and said that her entire family and the people of Swat were grateful to the government for the prompt arrangements for her evacuation and subsequent treatment at best hospitals in Pakistan and in the UK.

She also said that former premier Benazir Bhutto was her role model and she would endeavour to follow in her footsteps.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2012.
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