The Canadian High Commissioner to Pakistan, Margaret Huber, has said the entire world should respect the call of exercising moderation by President Pervez Musharraf to bridge the yawning gap of misperception between Islam and the western world.
"This call (of enlightened moderation) should be respected, and heard by the whole Islamic and non-Islamic countries", she said in an interview with APP.
"Religion Islam does not profess violence", said the Canadian envoy, adding no religion in the world professes violence.
She called for discouraging extremism and promoting "respect for diversity."
The ambassador also referred to a number of initiatives her country has been taking to encourage a dialogue between Islam and the west to promote mutual understanding.
She discussed the long history of excellent bilateral relations between Pakistan and Canada, but noted there was a tremendous room for improvement in ties in all fields.
Huber, who resumed her charge in Pakistan 10 months ago, is not new to the country and had been visiting Pakistan as a liaison official with the Manila-based Asian Development Bank 30 years ago.
She said both Pakistan and Canada had been working together in political, economic, commercial and cultural spheres for decades.
She referred to Canada's annual development programme for Pakistan of around 20 million Canadian dollars, saying the amount is modest, but a part of a very robust programme.
Margaret Huber expressed satisfaction over the growing trade which currently stands at 600 million dollars a year - a massive increase of 249 percent when compared with the trade volume two years back, adding: "But we think there still exists a great potential for much further expansion in two-way trade and investment ties."
She identified farm-food, telecommunications, automobile, oil and gas as potential areas of collaboration to the benefit of the two countries.
Stressing the need for diversifying the trade, she said Pakistan has a potential to increase its exports to Canada beyond the traditional textile goods.
Margaret Huber appreciated the growing stability in Pakistan's economy that was reflected in higher ratings by the International agency, Moody's, but observed there was a need to do more to encourage foreign investors.
The Canadian envoy said the international response to Pakistan's efforts is more favourable and positive, and hoped steps would continue to be taken to further improve the economy.
She noted the co-operative relations in political fields, and anticipated increasing interaction between the parliamentarians of the two countries in future, saying currently, Pakistan and Canada were collaborating on the issues of security, war on terrorism, international drug and human trafficking.
Margaret Huber said after China and India, Pakistan was the third largest source of immigration with over 200,000 people - 120,000 in Toronto alone, and also appreciated the contribution by the Canadian Pakistani community in the country's development.
She said the Canadian High Commission in Islamabad was doing its best to cut time of the immigration process to facilitate maximum number of people.
Answering a question about the problems Canadian students of Pakistani-origin were facing due to tough US immigration laws, she said that her country's position was very clear that any Canadian citizen should have their rights respected.
Margaret Huber said Canada was working with the United States to try to ease the situation and reduce the red-tape burden for these students on the US-Canada border.
Responding to another question, the Canadian high commissioner said Canada has long been urging both Pakistan and India to work together to resolve their bilateral differences. On the violation of human rights in the Indian occupied Kashmir, Margaret Huber said her country condemns it wherever they occurred.
The ambassador appreciated Pakistan's role in the fight against terrorism, adding: "The problem (terrorism) is trans-national. Anything that can be done to fight international terrorism is absolutely necessary.
She said considering the fact that there were 2,100 Canadians currently serving in Afghanistan under peace-keeping forces, her country was very much interested in steps taken for the (Pak-Afghan) border security.
The ambassador lauded the recent steps by Pakistan to flush out any foreign suspects from the tribal region along its border with Afghanistan. To a question, Margaret Huber expressed the hope that Pakistan's full membership to the Commonwealth would be restored as soon as possible.
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