Pakistan President Zardari Visits Malala Yousafzai in Birmingham Hospital

Dan Wooding : Dec 11, 2012
ASSIST News

President Zardari called Malala a "remarkable girl and a credit to Pakistan."

(BIRMINGHAM, UK)—The President of Pakistan has visited shot schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital and called her a "credit" to their country.

The 15-year-old is being treated at the hospital after being blasted in the head by a Taliban gunman.

According to the Birmingham Mail, President Asif Ali Zardari met Malala and her family during a private meeting on Saturday, December 8, 2012. (Photo: Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari meets Malala Yousafzai at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham /Birmingham Mail)

In a statement the hospital said the President had been briefed by its medical director about the schoolgirl's progress and future treatment.

It said: "President Zardari, accompanied by his daughter Asifa Bhutto, met with clinicians who have been treating Malala since her admission to the hospital on October 15.

"They were brought up to date on the 15-year-old's medical progress and her future treatment plan by (the trust's) medical director, Dr. Dave Rosser.

"President Zardari and Asifa Bhutto then had a short five-minute private meeting with Malala, her father Ziauddin and her brothers Khushal Khan and Atal Khan."

During the visit, the hospital added, the President had thanked staff for their outstanding care and had described Malala as a "remarkable girl and a credit to Pakistan." (Photo: Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari and his daughter Asifa Bhutto (right) talk to Malala Yousafzai at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham/Birmingham Mail)

The Birmingham Mail story said that Malala suffered gunshot wounds when she was targeted by the Taliban as she travelled home from school with two classmates in north-west Pakistan.

The teenager, who was attacked after promoting the education of girls and criticizing Taliban militants, was hit just above her left eye by a bullet which grazed the edge of her brain.

The Pakistani president knows all about violence in Pakistan, as his wife, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated on December 27, 2007 in Rawalpindi. Bhutto, twice Prime Minister of Pakistan (1988-1990; 1993-1996) and then-leader of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, had been campaigning ahead of elections due in January 2008, when shots were fired at her after a political rally at Liaquat National Bagh, and a suicide bomb was detonated immediately following the shooting.

She was declared dead at 18:16 local time at Rawalpindi General Hospital. Twenty-four other people were killed by the bombing. Bhutto had previously survived a similar attempt on her life that killed at least 139 people, after her return from exile two months earlier.

A personal note from Dan Wooding: It was at this same Queen Elizabeth Hospital back in 1960 where my father, Alfred Wooding, was operated on for bowel cancer after being given three months to live. Amazingly, he continued his ministry as a pastor for a further 30 years after that. It was through what I considered to be a miracle, that I gave my life to Christ.