BAKU, Oct 16: President Asif Ali Zardari said on Tuesday the shooting of 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai by the Taliban was an attack on all girls in the country and on civilisation itself.

In some of his most poignant remarks on the incident to date, Mr Zardari vowed not to let her shooting stop the nation’s drive to educate girls.

“The Taliban attack on the 14-year-old girl, who from the age of 11 was involved in the struggle for education for girls, is an attack on all girls in Pakistan, an attack on education, and on all civilised people,” Mr Zardari said at the 12th summit of Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) here.

“The work that she led was higher before God than what terrorists do in the name of religion. We will continue her shining cause,” he said.

Malala was attacked on her school bus in the former Taliban stronghold of the Swat valley a week ago. President Zardari said that such attacks would not deter Pakistan in its search for broader social justice.

“Terrorists should not have an impact on our future. We ourselves must determine our future,” he said.

In his speech, the president also urged the ECO member nations to expedite implementation of past agreements on trade liberalisation besides removing tariff and non-tariff barriers.

“We must resolve to operationalise the ECO Trade Agreement from Jan 1, 2013, and should also facilitate the private sector vis-à-vis activities in the trade, transport and energy sectors,” he remarked.

The member states must commit to become part of this fundamental agreement as it was one of the core objectives of the organisation.

Underlining the importance of regional connectivity, he said the vision articulated at the third ECO Summit in Islamabad was given by his wife, Benazir Bhutto.

The president highlighted the collective potential of the ECO, and the threats to it, and said the potential was clearly written in the Treaty of Izmir and in the ECO’s past pledges.

He said that it was obvious that the ECO still had a long way to go to achieve its goals. The regional blocs like the European Union and ASEAN continued to deepen their regional linkages but the ECO continued to speak only of potential, rather than results.—Agencies