President Asif Ali Zardari told Malala's father Friday that he was grieving and in shock over her shooting, and he condemned "the barbaric act of the militants," according to a news release from his office.

The president also said Malala and the other two victims of the attack should get free medical care.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Thursday called the attempted assassination of Malala "a wake-up call" for the nation.

Pakistani media reports suggested that the government is considering sending her overseas for treatment, but Bajwa, the military spokesman, said Friday that there is no plan yet to do that.

Media inside Pakistan continue to debate how to respond to Malala's shooting.

"Just as the Taliban scare us with terror, we must scare them by making them unable to operate," Madiha Afzal, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland who grew up in Pakistan, wrote in an opinion piece published in The Express Tribune.

"We must terrorize them by investing more than ever before in educating girls," she said.

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, now the U.N. special envoy for global education, has traveled to Pakistan and advocated for girls' education there. He said in an editorial published Friday that Zardari has invited him to return in November to lead a delegation of education leaders to come up with ways to improve opportunities for children.

"I have asked Pakistan's President Zardari to pledge that Malala's suffering will not be in vain," he wrote.