Islamabad:
Pakistani authorities on Thursday asked people to observe Friday as a "day of prayer" for teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai, who is in the critical care unit of a military hospital after being shot in the head during an assassination attempt by the Taliban.
Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Information Minister of the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, asked people across Pakistan to observe Friday as "Youm-e-Dua" (day of prayers) for the recovery of Malala.
Special prayers will be offered during the morning assembly at all educational institutions for Malala and her two friends who were injured in Tuesday's attack, Mr Hussain said.
"A minute's silence will also be observed in all government offices at noon tomorrow for Malala," he said. Mr Hussain said people should also condemn terrorists during tomorrow's event.
"The prayers of the people are with Malala and the people have condemned the terrorists involved in this incident. The whole world is with Malala and her two friends, and they oppose those who are the enemies of peace," he told a news conference in Peshawar.
In Lahore, over 50 clerics and scholars of the Sunni Ittehad Council issued a collective fatwa that described the attack on Malala as an un-Islamic act that violated Shariah or Islamic law.
The attack on the teenage girl went against Islamic ideals, said the fatwa issued in Lahore.
Islam does not bar women from obtaining knowledge and education and it is essential for all men and women to get educated, the clerics said.
Islam considers the killing of even one innocent person as tantamount to the killing of humanity, they said.
The fatwa observed that US drone attacks cannot be made an excuse for carrying out attacks on Muslim brethren. However, it noted that the US is an enemy of Pakistan and Islam and cooperation with it is prejudicial to Islam.
Fourteen-year-old Malala and two schoolmates were shot by Taliban fighters outside their school in Mingora, the main town in the former militant stronghold of Swat Valley, on Tuesday.
She was flown in a military helicopter from Peshawar to Rawalpindi on Thursday afternoon so that she could be provided better care at the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology.
A team of doctors treating Malala decided that she should be shifted to Rawalpindi after she failed to regain consciousness following a three-hour surgery on Wednesday to remove a bullet lodged near her spine.
Meanwhile, people across Pakistan continued to offer prayers and organise vigils for Malala's recovery.
Nurses at a hospital in Multan organised a candlelight vigil and described the attack on Malala as an assault on "all mothers and daughters".
Vigils were also organised in Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad and Swat.
In Islamabad, a group of lawmakers, journalists and civil society activists gathered near the parliament and offered prayers for Malala.
They shouted slogans in her support and carried placards and banners with photos of Malala.
The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack, saying Malala was targeted for backing "pro-West" views and a secular government in Swat, which was a militant stronghold till the army launched an operation to drive out the rebels in early 2009.
Malala came to prominence after she began writing a blog for the BBC in which she highlighted the atrocities of the Taliban and the effect of their ban on education for girls in the Swat Valley.
She became the first recipient of Pakistan's National Peace Award last year.