RAWALPINDI: The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Saturday said that the condition of Malala Yousufzai, the child activist who was shot by the Taliban in Mingora on Tuesday, was satisfactory, DawnNews reported.

The ISPR said Malala was still on a ventilator at the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC) and her vital organs were intact and functioning normally. Although, according to the report of the second CT scan, there was slight swelling on her brain's membrane.

“(The) health condition of Malala continues to remain satisfactory. Her vitals are okay and she is still on ventilator,” the ISPR said in an update.

“A board of doctors is continuously monitoring her condition,” it added.

A panel of doctors was monitoring the girl's condition.

Earlier on Friday, Director General ISPR, Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa, had said that “the next 36 to 48 hours” were critical.

General Bajwa had at the time said that a panel of doctors taking care of the injured Malala had described her condition as satisfactory.

“The neurosurgical and intensive care specialists are satisfied with the current condition of Malala Yousufzai, but still the next 36 to 48 hours are critical,” the chief of ISPR had said.

Also on Friday, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf visited Malala, paying tribute to her and her two friends who were also wounded when a gunman boarded their school bus on Tuesday and opened fire.

“It was not a crime against an individual but a crime against humanity and an attack on our national and social values,” he told reporters, pledging renewed vigour in Pakistan's struggle with militancy.

The attack has sickened Pakistan, where Malala won international prominence with a blog for the BBC that highlighted atrocities under the Taliban who terrorised the Swat valley from 2007 until a 2009 army offensive.

Activists say the shooting should be a wake-up call to whose who advocate appeasement with the Taliban. — DawnNews/AFP