MULTAN Pakistani police on Tuesday said a Shia lawmaker whose house was targeted in a suicide attack had earlier received threats from a sectarian militant group linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

At least 22 people were killed and 62 others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the outhouse of PML-N leader Rashid Akbar Niwani on Monday.

The blast took place at 0445pm in Bhakkar, Punjab, when Mr Niwani was meeting people of his constituency, listening to their problems.

'It appears to be a sectarian attack, because the Sunni militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is active in the neighbouring Dera Ismail Khan district,' senior police officer Iqbal Mahmood told AFP.

'Four police guards were on security duty with the Nowani family at the time of the blast because they had received threats from the same group previously,' Mahmood said.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (Army of Jhangvi, named after a dead Pakistani hardliner) is one of Pakistans most feared Islamist extremist groups.

It has been accused of killing hundreds of Shias - many of them in adjoining Dera Ismail Khan district - as well as providing logistical support in several major attacks by Osama bin Ladens Al-Qaeda network.