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.