Pakistan's interior minister Ahsan Iqbal has been shot in the arm in a suspected assassination attempt at a public meeting in Punjab province but will survive, his aide said yesterday.

"Ahsan Iqbal was targeted and shot in the arm," Asim Khan, a special aide to the politician, told AFP. "He is out of danger and being taken to a medical facility in Lahore. The attacker has been arrested."

Malik Ahmed Khan, a spokesman for the Punjab government, told AFP Iqbal had been attending the meeting in his constituency in Narowal district when he was shot in the right arm.

"The attacker was about to fire a second shot when police and people in the meeting overpowered him," Khan said, adding that Iqbal was undergoing surgery and confirming his life was not in danger.

The suspected attack on Iqbal comes as the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) struggles to regain its footing ahead of the coming general elections.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was deposed by the Supreme Court last year over graft allegations and has been banned from politics for life, while foreign minister Khawaja Asif was also removed by the Islamabad High Court late last month for violating election laws.

Iqbal, who was touted as a potential prime minister when Sharif was ousted last July, is a US-educated lawmaker from a political family associated with PML-N.