Actor Saba Qamar and singer Bilal Saeed’s petition has been granted exempting them from having to appear in court for the case against them for shooting a music video at Lahore’s Wazir Khan Mosque.
The petition was filed by their lawyers at a Lahore court Tuesday morning. Their legal team argued that Qamar and Saeed have been receiving death threats. Their lives are in danger because of which they can’t appear in court, the petition said.
The court announced its verdict and adjourned till September 3.
Earlier on August 15, a Lahore session court granted interim bail Qamar and Saeed in a case relating to the controversial music video shoot of Qabool at the Wazir Khan Mosque. The interim bail expires today.
The court had issued pre-arrest bail in the case till August 25 against Rs50,000 surety bonds collectively.
On August 13, a case was registered against Qamar and Saeed for shooting a music video for their latest song ‘Qubool’ at the mosque.
The Akbari Gate police have registered the case on the complaint of lawyer Farhat Manzoor. The FIR has been 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.
Petitioner Farhat Manzoor has accused the celebrities of hurting the sentiments of Muslims by shooting a music video at a mosque.
Saeed issued an apology over the controversial mosque shoot for his latest music video Qabool on August 9. His apology was for every Muslim whose sentiments were hurt by watching them shoot the song video at a mosque. He announced that he is removing the whole sequence shot at the Wazir Khan Mosque.
Saeed also uploaded a lengthy apology on his Instagram account, saying both he and Qamar “realise what has happened over the past few days has hurt sentiments deeply”.
In the video, the Baari singer explained that he also belongs to a Muslim family and could never do anything that is against Islam.
Related: Saba Qamar says ‘Qabool Hai’ in new music video
A short clip of Qamar whirling with Saeed at the historic mosque went viral on social media. The video drew strong reactions from religious circles.
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.
Sabahat Qamar Zaman known professionally as Saba Qamar, is a Pakistani actress and television presenter. Qamar has established a career in the Urdu television industry and is the recipient of several accolades, including four Lux Style Awards,
A Hum Award, and a Filmfare Award nomination. The Government of Pakistan honoured her with two of the country’s highest civilian honours, the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz in 2012, and Pride of Performance in 2016 for her contribution to the field of arts.
The pre partition drama Dastaan proved to be Qamar’s first success in which she played the parallel female lead, earning her the Pakistan Media Award, and starring roles in the drama Pani Jaisa Piyar and the socio drama Thakan (both 2011) established her as a leading actress in Urdu television. She earned wide critical praise for her portrayal of a manipulative and self-obsessed women in the 2011 romantic series Maat,
A middle class girl in the 2011 series Jo Chale To Jaan Se Guzar Gaye, a character Sarwat in the 2012 telenovela Shehryar Shehzadi, as orphan in the 2013 drama Kaash Aisa Ho and liberal minded Zara in the 2014 series Izteraab.
She received nomination for Best Actress at Hum Awards for her portrayal of Dania in Bunty I Love You and Farida in Digest Writer. Her performance as Fouzia Azeem in biographical drama Baaghi earned her Lux Style Award for Best Television Actress.
Qamar’s first appearance in film came with the critically acclaimed Sarmad Khoosat-directed biographical film Manto (2015), and had her first commercial success with the 2016 romantic comedy Lahore Se Aagey. Qamar subsequently received critical acclaim for her portrayal of a nouveau riche in her first Hindi film,
the comedy drama Hindi Medium (2017), which earned her the Filmfare Best Actress Award nomination and ranks among the highest-grossing Indian films of all time.
She went on to star in the 2018 romantic television films Moomal Rano and Dil Diyan Gallan. Besides acting, she worked as a host and comedian on the political satire Hum Sab Umeed Se Hain (2009–2015).
Qamar appeared in the PTV Home television series Mein Aurat Hoon (2005).The series was shot in Lahore, and was followed by several classic PTV series including Chaap (2005),
Dhoop Mein Andhera Hai (2006), Kanpur Se Katas Tak (2007), and Unbiyaanable (2007).In 2007, Qamar appeared in ATV’s Khuda Gawah which was the remake of 1992 Indian film of the same name, and the biographical drama Jinnah Ke Naam, which was the production of PTV Home in the direction of Tariq Mairaj.
She has played the role of Fatima Jinnah and the series was a tribute to the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Though the series failed commercially, Qamar received a nomination for Best TV Actress (Terrestrial) at the Lux Style Awards. In an earlier interview with The Express Tribune, Qamar confessed, “For me, acting is being able to express the feelings, emotions and expressions of different people and characters”.
In 2010, she appeared in a supporting role of Surraya in Hum TV’s pre partition television series Dastaan, an adaptation of Razia Butt’s novel Bano. She was seen opposite Ahsan Khan, Sanam Baloch and Fawad Khan.
Series proved to be the break-through for her and she won the Best TV Actress trophy at the Pakistan Media Awards (2010).She won the PTV Awards for the best TV actress in both public and jury choice categories at the 16th Annual PTV awards,
held on 23 July 2011 for her role in Tinkay.Tinkay also earned her a nomination for Best Television Actress at Lux Style Awards. This was followed by a supporting role in the PTV Home’s social drama on women, Bint e Adam.
Her role in the series was of a rich brat who falls for a boy from poor background, and marries him against her cruel father’s wishes. Bint e Adam was a major critical and commercial hit, however, critics noted that her role was “limited” from an acting point of view.In the same year, she starred in Abrar-ul-Haq’s music video “Boliyan”.
Qamar then appeared in Sarmad Khoosat’s romantic series Pani Jaisa Piyar(2011), where she played the character of Sana who has been engaged to Adarsh, the son of her mother’s best friend ever since ,
she was a child. Adarsh, however, has been unaware of this engagement, as his parents thought that he needed to focus more on his education than wedding plans. It was followed by a role in PTV’s Tera Pyar Nahi Bhoole. She was paired opposite Ahsan Khan in both the series.
Both of which garnered her Lux Style Award nominations for Best Television Actress. Later she appeared in Maat where she played the role of selfish, self-obsessed Saman opposite Adnan Siddiqui and Aamina Sheikh.
The series was critically and commercially hit and became the thirteen highest-rated Pakistani television series and also garnered her Pakistan Media Awards for Best Actress.
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