WASHINGTON, March 26: The revoking of a US visa issued to a Baloch senator has become a major human rights issue in the United States where 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 programme on government accountability scheduled for March 27 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 programme to be scaled back.

But State Department spokesman Nancy Beck said the problem was not funding but some new information received by the department after issuing the visa that “led us to believe he was not eligible for a visa.” She declined to elaborate.