(Adds comments from another lawyer)

ISLAMABAD, May 14 (Reuters) - Gunmen on Monday shot dead a Supreme Court official, regarded as a main witness by lawyers representing Pakistan's suspended chief justice in his fight against President Pervez Musharraf's move to sack him.

Syed Hammad Raza, an additional registrar of the Supreme Court, was shot at point-blank range by two or three gunmen just before dawn at his home in the capital, Islamabad, police and relatives said.

"He was an important person in our case," Munir Ahmed Malik, a lawyer on suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry's legal team, told Reuters.

Another of Chaudhry's lawyers said Raza was working closely with the suspended chief justice.

"He was witness to many things, like the chief justice said in his petition that some files were removed from his chamber on the day he was suspended," the lawyer, Tariq Mehmood, said. "He (Raza) was under pressure," he said without elaborating.

Chaudhry has been at the centre of a judicial and political crisis since Musharraf decided to sack him two months ago over undisclosed allegations of misconduct.

Analysts have speculated Musharraf's motive is aimed at removing a possible obstacle should his plans for re-election later this year run into constitutional challenges.

Raza was briefly detained on March 9, the day Chaudhry was suspended, Malik said.

"Investigations are going on. Presently, we don't know about the motive," a police official said.

Raza was stationed in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, where Chaudhry was raised and served as a judge, before being reassigned to the Supreme Court.

STAY ON INQUIRY

"You called him to Islamabad. You should have protected him, and now my children need protection as well," Raza's grief-stricken widow, Shabana, told Chaudhry when he visited to offer his condolences.

Shabana told Reuters she was convinced it was a targeted killing as there was no attempt at robbery.

"He opened the door and they shot him and ran away," she said.

The Supreme Court has put a stay on an inquiry being heard by a panel of judges, known as the Supreme Judicial Council.

A full bench of the Supreme Court will begin hearing a petition from Chaudhry challenging the impartiality of some members of the council.

The independent-minded Chaudhry had annoyed the authorities by taking up the case of missing detainees, and with a ruling that scuppered the privatisation of a state-run steel firm.

A judge, who visited Raza's home in Islamabad, told reporters the Supreme Court had summoned police officials on Tuesday to know how swiftly they responded to the killing.

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