The Wazir Khan mosque case has taken another turn as a district court in Lahore has issued arrest warrants for actress Saba Qamar and singer Bilal Saeed. The two received a lot of criticism, even death threats for shooting the music video for Qubool at the historic Wazir Khan mosque. As they failed to appear for a court hearing, the judicial magistrate issued arrest warrants against them, while setting the bail at Rs30,000 each.
In August 2020, the Akbari Gate police registered a case against the duo after a short clip of Saba Qamar twirling at the mosque went viral on social media. The video drew strong disapproval from religious circles. An FIR was registered under Section 295 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
On August 15, the two were granted interim pre-arrest bail until Aug 25, with a further extension given in September 2020. However, according to Saba and Bilal, there was no dance sequence recorded with playback music in the mosque.
Both Saba and Bilal responded to the criticism and apologized for harming the sentiments of Muslims.
Presenting the "Qubool" teaser
This is also the only sequence that was shot at the historical Wazir Khan Mosque. It’s a prologue to the music video featuring a Nikah scene. It was neither shot with any sort of playback music nor has it been edited to the music track.#SabaQamar pic.twitter.com/iYRswlLWLd
— Saba Qamar (@s_qamarzaman) August 8, 2020
