ISLAMABAD, Sept 2: The country needs a “full-time army chief” to look after the military affairs without any distraction whatsoever.

This was stated by Pakistan Muslim League-N’s chief coordinator Ahsan Iqbal in a statement issued here on Tuesday.

Expressing concern over press reports suggesting that Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had presided over a meeting that had deliberated upon decisions made by Pakistani corps, indicating the Indian intelligence agencies’ penetration in the army apparatus on this side of the border.

He said that India’s access to vital secrets was not surprising as the country’s army chief was “only a part-time employee.”

Mr Iqbal said the penetration of Indian spies into the decision-making apparatus of the military leadership was a serious threat to the national security.

Such reports, he said, indicated that the military agencies — whose attention was focused mainly on “harassment and surveillance” of political opponents — had been “ignoring their original tasks, causing serious gaps in the national security.”

The PML-N, he said, had been stressing the need for confining activities of defence-related institutions to military affairs for quite some time.

He said reports regarding Pakistan army officers being investigated by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation did not bode well for the army’s morale.

The PML-N leader also expressed shock over report that the Army Welfare Trust was among the country’s major defaulters. He said if politicians could be disqualified if their firms defaulted on loans, similarly Gen Musharraf should also resign because an army institution had defaulted on bank loans.

Stressing the need for resolving what he termed the current constitutional crisis, he said it was only possible if Gen Musharraf recognized the supremacy of the parliament.