ISLAMABAD - Malala Yousafzai, the 14-year-old peace activist who was shot in the head by the Taliban, is slowly showing signs of improvement, doctors said Sunday.ISPR spokesman Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa on Sunday said that injured Malala’s health condition is making “steady and satisfactory” progress while sending her abroad was still on the cards.The teenaged schoolgirl is under medical treatment at Combined Military Hospital (CMH) here, following she was targeted by militants in her home town in Swat on Tuesday.Doctors are continuing to monitor Malala’s condition and will carry out a detailed examination on Sunday evening, he said. “Doctors have reviewed Malala’s condition and (they) are satisfied,” Bajwa said. “She is making slow and steady progress which is in keeping with expectations. Recovery from this type of injury is always slow which is not a matter of concern.”On Saturday, the military said Malala remained on a ventilator but was able to move her legs and hands after her sedatives were reduced. On Monday, Bajwa said short trial of wearing off from ventilator was given which was successful. Later she was reconnected to the ventilator to avoid patient’s fatigue.“Possibilities of transfer overseas are being considered,” Bajwa said but maintained that no decision has yet been made on whether to send Malala abroad for treatment. “We are waiting for the doctors’ decision – we are ready to follow the doctors’ advice,” he said.A special medical team comprising specialists from abroad, senior specialists from civil set up and senior doctors from Pakistan Army are keeping vigilance on Malala’s health round the clock. However, as part of a contingency plan, arrangements are still on cards to shift her to UAE for treatment and a special air ambulance with necessary equipment would shortly be arranged to manage her air travel.The government said the royal family of the United Arab Emirates plans to send an air ambulance for Malala in case doctors decide to send her abroad for treatment. Islamabad’s ambassador to the UAE Jamil Ahmed Khan told a local TV news channel on Sunday that visas are being finalised for the crew and six doctors who will accompany the flight. Khan said arrangements have been made to treat the girl at three hospitals in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.A top Emirati official said on Sunday that the UAE is ready to evacuate a Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban for further medical treatment. “There is an Emirati plane ready to evacuate” Malala Yousafzai, the official told a foreign news agency on condition of anonymity, adding that the plane would be ready to fly out of the UAE once “final preparations are complete.”Malala was shot in the former Taliban stronghold of Swat last Tuesday in retaliation for her campaign for the right to education. She was airlifted to Pakistan’s top military hospital on Thursday for specialist treatment. The Taliban said on Tuesday that they carried out the shooting. Spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told a foreign news agency that the group had repeatedly warned her to stop speaking out against it.The shooting of the teenaged education campaigner has been denounced worldwide and it has sickened Pakistan, where Malala came to prominence with a blog for the BBC highlighting atrocities by the Taliban when it controlled much of the Swat valley between 2007 and 2009. Pakistani authorities have offered a reward of more than $100,000 for the capture of her attackers.The military spokesman had told a news conference on Saturday that all available resources were being used to investigate the shooting, though he declined to say how many people were in custody. Ahmad Shah, police station chief in the northwestern town of Mingora where Malala was shot has said nearly 200 people were detained over the shooting, including the bus driver and a school watchman, but most had been released.The shooting has heightened speculation that the army may finally launch a long rumoured offensive against the Taliban in their stronghold of North Waziristan, on the Afghan border. Asked whether the military might now consider launching an offensive against the Taliban in their tribal area stronghold, Bajwa said: “Such decisions are not taken overnight.”Malala Yousufzai earned the enmity of the Taliban for publicising their behaviour when they took over the Swat Valley where she lived and for speaking about the importance of education for girls. The group first started to exert its influence in Swat in 2007 and quickly extended its reach to much of the valley by the next year. They set about imposing their will on residents by forcing men to grow beards, preventing women from going to the market and blowing up many schools – the majority for girls.Malala wrote about these practices in a journal for the BBC under a pseudonym when she was just 11. After the Taliban were pushed out of the valley in 2009 by the Pakistani military, she became even more outspoken in advocating for girls’ education. She appeared frequently in the media and was given one of the country’s highest honours for civilians for her bravery.The Pakistani Taliban said they carried out the shooting because Malala was promoting “Western thinking”. They said it was ordered by the leader of the Taliban movement in Swat, Mullah Fazlullah, and his deputies, who are all believed to have fled to Afghanistan after the military invaded in 2009.Afghan President Hamid Karzai has written letters to top political and religious leaders in Pakistan denouncing the attack on Malala and asking them to help battle extremism in both countries, the president’s office said in a statement issued late Saturday. Karzai wrote that he views the shooting as an attack on Afghanistan’s girls as well. “It is a deplorable event that requires serious attention,” Karzai wrote.According to a New York Times report on Sunday, Malala Yousafzai has about a 50-50 chance of survival, maybe a little better, according to her doctors. She remains stable but unconscious in an army hospital in Rawalpindi. Military doctors have reportedly consulted with two civilian Pakistani neurosurgeons who have recommended that Malala be sent abroad for treatment.According to a Pakistan private TV channel, Pakistan ambassador to the UAE has said that the air ambulance will reach Pakistan on Monday. He said it will be on standby if the doctors decide to send Malala abroad for treatement.