LONDON: UN special education envoy Gordon Brown will visit Pakistan next month for talks with President Asif Ali Zardari after the shooting of a child activist by the Taliban, Brown's office said Thursday.

Brown, who was prime minister of Britain from 2007-2010, will lead a delegation that will discuss with the Pakistani government how to improve education opportunities for children.

He said he was concerned about the shooting of 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai on a school bus in the Swat valley in northwest Pakistan, carried out by the Taliban in revenge for the girl's campaign for the right to an education.

“I have asked Pakistan's President Zardari to pledge that Malala's suffering will not be in vain,” Brown said in a statement released by his office.

“In response, he has invited me to lead a delegation of education leaders to visit him in Pakistan in November to talk about how he can improve opportunities for children.”Malala was airlifted to the country's top military hospital for specialist treatment on Thursday and was still in a critical condition.

Brown was appointed special global education envoy to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in July, following in the footsteps of former US president Bill Clinton and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.