Supreme Court raises question: Can individual take the law into own hands?

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the counsel for Mumtaz Qadri whether or not an individual can take the law into own hands if he finds a person criticising the blasphemy law. A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Asif Saeed khan Khosa comprising Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Dost Muhammad Khan, resumed the hearing of appeal of Mumtaz Qadri in the Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer case.
Justice Khosa categorically said if people started taking the law into their hands, to punish the blasphemers, it would set a trend which would certainly become 'very dangerous for society'. Referring to different verdicts of the apex court, Justice Khosa said that there are a number of precedents in the superior courts in which individuals had levelled blasphemy allegations on the basis of their personal grudges.
He also questioned the counsel for Qadri whether the accused had approached the state against the then Punjab governor, Salmaan Taseer before he took the extreme step of resorting to assassinate him. Former Justice Nazeer Akhtar, the counsel for Qadri, had nothing substantive to defend his client except saying that 'punishing a blasphemer is a religious duty which has to be performed by everyone'.
He claimed that in 80 cases, the courts gave punishment while in 40 blasphemy cases, individuals had taken steps against blasphemers. He said that his client had no personal enmity with governor Taseer, adding Taseer opposed blasphemy laws, which forced him to take the extreme step. Justice Khosa also said the main issue in the case is whether or not individuals can presume the authority to punish a blasphemer at any cost. On Monday, Qadri's lawyer argued before a bench of the Supreme Court that the guard had acted on his own interpretation of the blasphemy law after being influenced by speeches of a religious scholar to assassinate the then Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer.
Nazir Akhtar, said that the guard was convinced Taseer had committed blasphemy. The three-member bench noted that the real culprit was the person who had induced Qadri to commit the act. Justice Khosa added that no evidence had been presented to show that Taseer committed blasphemy; rather it seemed that the slain governor had pointed out defects in the law - which did not constitute a crime. The counsel for Qadri will continue his arguments today (Wednesday) and there are chances that former chief justice Lahore High Court (LHC) Khawaja Muhammad Sharif, who is also representing Qadri, may also advance his arguments.