LAHORE: A local court in Lahore has summoned actor Saba Qamar and singer Bilal Saeed on September 3 in a case related to defiling the Wazir Khan mosque by shooting a song video.
Earlier, police had registered a first information report (FIR) against the couple under Section 295 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) following a court’s order to act on an application of a lawyer as per the law and decide whether a cognizable offense was made out.
On August 15, the court had granted interim pre-arrest bail to Qamar and Saeed until Aug 25.
Today, Additional District and Sessions Judge Waseem Ahmad approved an application filed by the couple seeking exemption from personal appearance in the court today, in which they cited threats to their lives.
However, the judge directed Qamar and Saeed to appear in court regarding their application for bail extension on September 3 in person and directed the police not to take action against them until then.
At the last hearing of the case, Qamar and Saeed had appeared before the court along with their counsel and sought bail citing apprehension of their arrest by the police. The counsel argued that the FIR was baseless and contrary to the facts.
On Aug 13, a session’s court had directed the concerned SHO to proceed in accordance with the law on the application filed by Advocate Sardar Farhat Manzoor Khan.
The lawyer pleaded before the court that the singer-actor duo trampled upon the sanctity of the mosque by their act which also sparked outrage among the citizens. He asked the court to order the police to lodge a case against the persons involved in the allegedly illegal act.
The court on Tuesday also barred police from arresting them until the date of their court appearance.
Earlier, a short clip of Qamar whirling with Saeed at the historic mosque went viral on social media, drawing strong reactions from religious and political circles.
Saba Qamar also responded to the criticism in a series of tweets, saying the clip was a “prologue to the music video featuring a Nikkah scene. It was neither shot with any sort of playback music nor has it been edited to the music track,” she said on Twitter.
Bilal Saeed has subsequently apologized to the public in a video posted on social media. “We realize what has happened over the past few days has hurt your sentiments deeply,” he wrote as a caption.