Court approves interim bail for Saba Qamar, Bilal Saeed

A Lahore court on Thursday approved interim bail for actress Saba Qamar and singer Bilal Saeed in a case related to the shooting of a music video in the city’s historic Wazir Khan Mosque.

"The court confirms the interim bail of both the accused," Additional Sessions Judge Chaudhry Qasim Ali  announced while issuing his verdict on the bail application.

Both Qamar and Saeed were present on the occasion.

Last month, Qamar and Saeed were among a group of people who were booked in a case for allegedly "violating the sanctity" of the city's Wazir Khan Mosque by shooting a music video. 

The proceedings were initiated against them after a sessions court ordered a local station house officer (SHO) to take action under the law.

The first information report (FIR) of the incident, registered at the Akbari Gate police station, was based on Section 295 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which pertains to "offences relating to religion", "injuring or defiling a place of worship, with intent to insult the religion of any class", and "deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting Its religion or religious beliefs".

Earlier, Dawn.com had reported that the counsels of the Punjab Auqaf Department and the actors argued that no offence had been committed, that prior permission had been granted against payment of Rs30,000. 

Furthermore, Saba 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.