Court approves Saba Qamar, Bilal Saeed's bail request in mosque video case

A court granted Pakistani actress Saba Qamar and singer Bilal Saeed bail in a case pertaining to the filming of a song at Lahore's historic Wazir Khan Mosque on Thursday.

Both the accused appeared in the courtroom today to have their attendance registered at the hearing. During the hearing, Qamar's lawyer contended that his client was innocent and did not violate the sanctity of the mosque.

However, the investigating officer said that police had not yet received the video of the song's shooting that had gone viral on the internet.

Lahore Sessions Court judge Chaudhry Qasim ali ruled in favour of Qamar and Saeed's interim petitions, granting them bail.

After granting the bail, the judge said that the matter of reward or compensation will be decided at the trial.

Qamar and Saeed landed in hot waters after some scenes they shot at a mosque for the video of a song went viral on social media, sparking anger and outrage with some accusing them of violating the sanctity of a place of worship.

Following the criticism, both accused had denied dancing in the mosque. Qamar had said the clip was a "prologue to the music video featuring a Nikah scene" and "was neither shot with any sort of playback music nor has it been edited to the music track", while Bilal Saeed had issued an unconditional apology on social media.

In addition, the Punjab Auqaf and Religious Affairs Department had suspended Wazir Khan Mosque's manager Ishtiaq Ahmed on August 9, a day after social media erupted in anger over the video.

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