Islamabad: Former cricketer and Pakistani opposition figure Imran Khan yesterday took his anticorruption public mobilisation campaign to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s homeground.

Local news channels showed supporters and workers of Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), gathering at a ground near the residential estate of the Sharif family in Raiwind, near Lahore, capital of Punjab province.

A heavy police presence had been deployed for security.

According to reports, police had also taken precautionary measures to prevent any movement of people toward the Sharif family complex, located several kilometres from the venue of the PTI rally.

Caravans of PTI workers arrived at Raiwind from different parts of the country including northwestern Khyber Pakthtunkahwa province, where the party is in power.

Khan, along with other party leaders, reached the Raiwind venue after dusk. He was expected to speak late at night.

Political tension and fiery verbal exchanges between activists of PTI and Sharif’s PML-N party marked the run-up to the much-publicised march to Raiwind.

Khan has said in his address to the crowd he would give “two strong messages” — one to Sharif over alleged corruption and the other to Indian premier Narendra Modi regarding threats to Pakistan.

The PTI had invited other opposition parties including the main Pakistan People’s Party to join the march to Raiwinnd, but it offered only moral support.

Khan has been demanding an independent judicial probe into disclosures from the leaked Panama Papers — regarding offshore companies allegedly owned by Sharif’s children — a demand also made by others in opposition circles.

After the controversy emerged in May, the prime minister initially offered to set up a judicial inquiry commission but differences with the opposition over its terms of reference led to a deadlock.

PML-N and its leaders say people reject what they call “politics of agitation and disruption,” and cite the ruling party’s triumph against PTI in most by-elections held in Punjab, most populous and leading province.

The prime minister has repeatedly asserted his government would complete its five-year term, advising Khan to wait for next elections due in 2018.

The PTI leader says accountability from Sharif is prerequisite to building a new, corruption-free Pakistan. He has vowed not to give up his campaign.