LAHORE" The president of Pakistan cannot be sued in any court of law on criminal charges because the Constitution provides complete immunity to him in this regard, constitutional experts say. The experts say it is right that under Article 248 of the Constitution no criminal proceedings whatsoever would be instituted or continued against the president in any court during his term of office. They say this article saved Pervez Musharraf's skin from being prosecuted during his term in the office because it is clearly mentioned in the article that no criminal case could be filed against the person holding president's office. Even if criminal cases are pending against him and he becomes president, he cannot be summoned in person. The article further says that the president is "not answerable to any court for the exercise of power and performance of functions of their respective offices or for any act done or purported to be done in the exercise of those powers and performance of those functions". Some experts, however, disagreed with the part of the article, saying that a Supreme Court decision had negated it. They said the same point was also agitated before the 13-member bench of the Supreme Court after the now deposed Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, had challenged his March 9, 2007 suspension and sending of reference to Supreme Judicial Council by Pervez Musharraf. Justice Iftikhar had made the president respondent. But Musharraf's lawyers argued that he had got immunity under Article 248. They were of the view that the Federation could be sued, but not the president. But the full bench went on to proceed the case without deleting president's name from the list of respondents. The experts say the SC had set a precedent that could be helpful in future cases if someone decided to sue president in office. They say no court could either issue process for the arrest or imprisonment of the president during his term of office. But at the same time there is no constitutional bar on the courts to examine a law that it thinks contrary to constitutional provisions. They say if the decision of a court goes against the person holding president's office the same would be affected the day he is out of presidency. The constitutional experts say once the term of president office is over he could also be prosecuted for the crimes he committed during his tenure and the cases that were pending before his becoming president would be reopened. The experts say that under this constitutional provision no civil proceedings in which relief is claimed against the president should be instituted during his term of office in respect of anything done by or not done by him in his personal capacity whether before or after he enters upon his office unless, at least 60 days before the proceedings are instituted, notice in writing has been delivered to him.