ISLAMABAD, June 24: Lawsuits against the government of Pakistan were mounting today as more people went to court to protest the extradition of the man accused of shooting two employees of the dreaded American spy machinary, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

An opposition politician, the former director of Pakistan's spy agency and the Pakistan Institute of Human Rights all have filed suits against the government of Pakistan alleging it broke its own laws when it extradited Mir Aimal Kansi to the United States last week. Kansi was picked up in a clandestine raid on a hotel in Pakistan, whisked off in a helicopter to the federal capital of Islamabad where he was apparently transferred to a C-130 for the trip to the United States.

Kansi is being held without bail in Fairfax county, Virginia, near the CIA headquarters where he allegedly shot two employees in January 1993.Right-wing religious parties have accused Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's conservative government of selling out to the Americans.

The petitioners include former Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Gen (retd) Hameed Gul, who filed a case in the Lahore High Court challenging Kansi's kidnapping by American FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) agents.``This is a case of kidnapping. Our state did nothing as the Americans whisked away a Pakistani citizen,'' Gen Gul said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.