High Commissioner of Pakistan to Canada Muhammad Saleem delivered a keynote address at the historic Albany Club in Toronto, engaging a distinguished audience comprising Canadian legislators, business executives and policy influencers. The event served as a pertinent platform to highlight low-hanging opportunities and the vast potential for bilateral economic cooperation with Canada’s political and business communities.
The high commissioner underscored the significant untapped potential for expanding Pakistan–Canada trade and investment relations. He highlighted Pakistan’s competitive and strategic investment sectors, including mining and minerals, IT-enabled services, clean energy and infrastructure. Emphasizing Pakistan’s economic diplomacy initiatives, he pointed to the country’s strategic location as a bridge connecting Central Asia, South Asia, the Gulf states and the wider world across the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. He also drew attention to growing prospects for Canadian enterprises in Pakistan under Canada’s economic diversification drive.
Sharing geopolitical perspectives, the high commissioner stressed that sustainable peace in South Asia is vital for long-term regional prosperity. He reiterated Pakistan’s principled stance on the Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India. Referring to Canada’s first-ever UN peacekeeping mission in the disputed Kashmir region in 1949, he emphasized the need for a peaceful resolution of the dispute through the implementation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions, which call for a free and fair plebiscite to allow the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir to decide whether to join Pakistan or India.
Hon. Zee Hamid, Member of Provincial Parliament and Associate Solicitor General of the Government of Ontario, and Hon. former Member of Parliament Bryon Wilfert, Chair of the Canada-Pakistan Business Council, also addressed the participants at the event.
