Cancellation of Senator’s Visa Stirs Row in US

Washington, DC: The revoking of a US visa issued to a Baloch senator has become a major human rights issue and the media as well as rights groups are urging the Bush administration to review its decision. A report published on Saturday in the Washington Post indicated that Mr Baloch’s visa was apparently revoked to please the Pakistani government because the senator was a known critic of Islamabad’s policy.
Mr Baloch was invited by the State Department last year to attend a program on government accountability and was even issued a US visa. But US officials recently told Mr Baloch that his invitation has been cancelled and his visa revoked because of a “recent withdrawal in funding” which had forced the program to be scaled back.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------