Artistes granted bail in mosque video case

An additional district and sessions judge has granted interim pre-arrest bail to actors Bilal Saeed and Saba Qamar aftet an FIR was registered against them over alleged shooting of a song in Wazir Khan mosque.

They implored the court that neither dance took place nor any music was played in the mosque. They contended the offence mentioned in the FIR was a malicious attempt to malign their reputation.

They submitted that the song “Qabool Hai” for which the video shooting took place was officially released on August 12, and it contained no footage of the mosque as alleged in the FIR.

Petitioners Bilal Saeed and Saba Qamar appeared before the judge, contending that they were innocent and belonged to humble and honest families. They claimed that they had been implicated in a false case to humiliate them. The alleged that the FIR has been lodged with ulterior motives and mala fide intention by the complainant in connivance with local police.

The FIR was lodged after an unexplained delay of 17 days after the alleged occurrence when the video shooting took place as per terms and conditions mentioned in the permission granted by the Auqaf department, they contended.

They alleged that the date of occurrence had been falsely mentioned in the FIR as August 8. The judge granting them ad-interim pre-arrest bail and also sought a detailed report from Akbari Gate police by August 25.

The FIR had been registered against the artistes along with producer Ahmad Waqas and officials of of Auqaf department over alleged shooting of the video of the song in the mosque.

Complainant Sardar Farhat Manzoor Khan lodged the FIR in Akbari Gate police station under section 295 of PPC.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 16^th, 2020.