WASHINGTON, 27 March 2006 — Ouch! The US State Department and the White House once again have shown they disagree on foreign policy.

The problem this time is Pakistan.

After extending an invitation to a leading Pakistani senator, the United States changed its mind and revoked the visa of the lawmaker from Balochistan province who happens to be a known critic of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

The move has set off charges that the action came at the request of the Pakistani government.

Sanaullah Baloch, a strident critic of Musharraf’s handling of the conflict in Balochistan where the Pakistani Army is battling local tribes, was invited by the State Department last year to attend a program on government accountability scheduled for today and issued a visa.

American officials in Islamabad recently told Baloch, who was scheduled to arrive this weekend, that his invitation had been canceled and his visa revoked because of a “recent withdrawal in funding” which had forced the program to be scaled back, according to The Washington Post.

The State Department has since then changed its tune, and spokeswoman Nancy Beck said last week the problem was not funding but that some new information received by the department after issuing the visa for Baloch that “led us to believe he was not eligible for a visa”.

South Asia experts said the decision could be due to Baloch’s criticism of Musharraf’s Balochistan policy. “What is truly outrageous about his situation is this was a US government-sponsored trip. Since when do we let other countries decide on whom we should invite to our country?” Michael McFaul of the Hoover Institution in Washington, told reporters.

In a telephone interview, Baloch told The Washington Post that Balochistan, the largest province in Pakistan, was being exploited for its natural resources, even though the region was starved of development funds.

The province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan and is strategically important to oil-shipping lanes, is being undermined, said Baloch, by the Pakistani government’s leverage of Islamists in the liberal-minded region. Baloch said the government did not respect human rights in the region and added that about 600 people had been killed there in recent months.

Local tribes in Balochistan demand greater autonomy and a share in the region’s resources.