MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) — A police official says a bomb blast targeting a ruling party lawmaker has killed seven people in central Pakistan.

Mubashar Mekan says Amjad Khosa wasn't present at his election office in Taunsa city at the time of the blast Wednesday. Nine people were wounded.

Mekan says police are investigating whether it was a suicide attack.

Pakistan has long been under attack from local and al-Qaida-linked foreign Islamic militants, killing tens of thousands of people in over a decade.

Since last summer, the Pakistani army has been battling the militants in their haven of the tribal region of North Waziristan on the Afghan border, dispersing many of the fighters there.