WASHINGTON, MARCH 11: United States President Bill Clinton will go ahead with his plan to visit Pakistan during his South Asia trip later this month despite the murder of deposed pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif's lawyer Iqbal Raad in Karachi.The incident would not mean cancellation of Islamabad from President Bill Clinton's itinerary for South Asia, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart told reporters Friday."I don't have any (of the President's) travel plan changes," Lockhart said, condemning the killing as "a horrific act of violence".He reiterated Clinton's brief stopover in Islamabad after his India visit in no way signals America's approval of the military regime in Pakistan."For anyone who is under that perception (that Clinton's visit signals an approval of General Pervez Musharraf's regime), they would be wrong, and we will go great lengths to make sure that the perception is dispelled," Lockhart said.Asked to comment if the US believes the rule of law exists in Pakistan, Lockhart said: "Obviously the Constitution has been suspended. And we have been pressing the Pakistan (military) government to return to democracy. We'll continue to do that. (but) well, with the Constitution suspended, it makes it difficult to answer that question affirmatively."Meanwhile, in Islamabad, a day after their colleague was gunned down, nervous defence lawyers for deposed premier Nawaz Sharif said Saturday they want their client's hijacking trial relocated out of Karachi as a ``matter of caution''.Khawaja Sultan Ahmad, chief defence attorney for Sharif in the plane hijacking case, said the daylight murder of Iqbal Raad is not only shocking, but ``has scared us and we would like to have the venue of the trial shifted from Karachi either to Lahore or Islamabad as a matter of caution''.The Lahore-based defence team ``is staying in a hotel in a city strange to us. There is no security for us in Karachi. We are too vulnerable to such incidents as it is very easy to target us,'' Ahmad was quoted today by the internet edition of English daily The Dawn as saying.He said the killing has ``created certain suspicions'' in the minds of the defence counsel. Whether police investigators find the motive behind the gruesome killing or it is termed a `blind murder', the defence lawyers will not be able to proceed with the case in Karachi.The police should investigate the matter and find out if the murder was motivated by political vendetta, he added.Raad will be buried later Saturday near his home in Karachi's posh Defence neighbourhood. Paramilitary rangers and heavily armed police are deployed in the area.So far no connection has been made between the killing and Sharif's hijacking trial.The autopsy report confirmed that Raad was shot at six times in the chest.The autopsy, conducted at the Civil Hospital Karachi, also revealed that the former judge's son, Shahzad Khatri and Raad's office peon Ghulam Abbas were shot at once in the head.According to official news agency APP, Shahzad had gone to the building located in the port town's commercial district to collect rent, when he fell victim to the gunmen.A formal first information report in connection with killing has been lodged at the Artillery Maidan police station in the city under several sections of the Penal Code and the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.
