LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Wednesday dismissed acquittal applications of actor Saba Qamar and singer Bilal Saeed in a case of alleged desecration of Wazir Khan mosque and summoned them for indictment on the next hearing.

Earlier, Ms Qamar, clad in a black burqa, and Saeed appeared before the court along with their lawyer.

Asking the court to allow the acquittal applications, the defence counsel argued that there was a delay of ten days in registration of the FIR.

He said an inquiry conducted by the Punjab Auqaf Department declared the petitioners innocent. He said the report maintained that no immoral act had been committed in the mosque.

He said no dance or music took place at the mosque as alleged in the FIR. He said the petitioners had been implicated in the case for ulterior motives.

Also read: Saba Qamar, Bilal Saeed indicted in desecration case

The counsel argued that there was no probability of the conviction of the petitioners in any offence and any further proceedings in the case would be a futile exercise.

Opposing the acquittal, a prosecutor argued that the petitioners performed dance in the mosque. He said a video of the dance was available with the prosecution. He asked the court to dismiss the acquittal applications of the petitioners and let the prosecution establish its case with evidence.

The magistrate dismissed the applications and summoned both celebrities on March 16 for indictment.

The Akbari Gate police had registered a case against the duo under section 295 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) following a court’s direction to act on an application of a lawyer as per law and decide whether a cognisable offence was made out.

The section deals with the offence of injuring or defiling a place of worship, with intent to insult the religion of any class.

Advocate Farhat Manzoor Chandio, the complainant, pleaded that the culprits trampled upon the sanctity of the mosque by their act which also sparked an outrage among the citizens.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2022