President Zardari visits Malala in Birmingham hospital

President Asif Ali Zardari accompanied by one of his daughters, Aseefa Bhutto Zardari, on Saturday visited Malala Yousufzai at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital where the teenage activist is undergoing treatment, DawnNews reported. The president said the people of Pakistan were proud of Malala and her bravery for not succumbing to terrorist threats. He further said that Malala had emerged as a symbol of committment for the elimination of terrorism, extremism and sectarianism from Pakistan. On Oct 9, Yousufzai, 15, was shot in the head by gunmen for raising her voice against the Pakistani Taliban and for allegedly advocating “Western, secular” values. After receiving treatment at hospitals in Peshawar and Rawalpindi, she was flown to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham where she is currently undergoing medical treatment. Yousufzai began standing up to the Pakistani Taliban when she was 11, when the Islamabad government had effectively ceded control of the Swat Valley where she lives to the militants.