KARACHI, Dec 23: The Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to decide the Kalabagh Dam issue under Article 184 or any other article of the Constitution, former Sindh Bar Council chairman Abrar Hasan said here on Friday.

Under Article 184 (1), he elaborated, the court has exclusive jurisdiction in any dispute between ‘any two or more governments’.

According to an explanation to the provision, the word ‘governments’ means the federal and provincial governments. In exercise of its jurisdiction under Article 184 (1), the court can pronounce declaratory judgments only.

In order for the article to be applicable, the lawyer said, there must first be an existing dispute between two or more provincial governments or between one or more of them and the federal government. At present, there might be a difference of opinion between the federal and provincial chief executives but there was no inter-government dispute as such.

Secondly, the dispute must relate to a question of law and be referred to the court by one or more governments. Since these conditions are not met, the question cannot be taken up by the Supreme Court. This is beside the fact that the judiciary should not, as far as possible, be involved in political or technical issues, Advocate Abrar Hasan said.

About Article 184 (3), he added, the Supreme Court is empowered to exercise writ jurisdiction in its original jurisdiction, suo motu or on a direct petition, but the issue must involve a question of public importance with reference to the enforcement of any of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

As for Article 186, it can be invoked by the president if he considers that it is desirable to obtain the opinion of Supreme Court on ‘any question of law’, which he considers of public importance. The court shall consider a question so referred and report its opinion on the question to the president.

Dissolution of the constituent assembly and validity of laws declared void by the Federal Court in Tamizuddin Khan’s case, the recognition of Bangladesh and the Hisba Act were referred to the court under this provision or identical provisions in the abrogated constitutions.

The lawyer said the construction of dams at Bhasha, Kalabagh or Katzarah (Skardu) was not a legal question. It was a politicised engineering issue on which the province of Sindh, being a lower riparian, has valid reservations, which go down to the availability of water for irrigation. Water would become more scarce if another huge reservoir was built upstream, the province believed.

He warned that reference of the matter would be harmful to the nation as that might divide the court on provincial lines, like the execution of prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.