Land Usurpation Prevention Commission

In October 2022, the IEA established the Land-Grabbing Prevention and Restitution Commission, within the Ministry of Justice, whose purpose is to investigate land-grabbing under the Islamic Republic, restore any state land and prevent it happening in the future. The IEA has also established a special court to which any party with an objection to a decision by the commission can appeal.

The Land Usurpation Prevention Commission has four special courts in four zones of the country to investigate Emirati lands, and one technical delegation in each province to identify and verify usurped lands.
 

The Ministry of Justice has announced that more than 510,000 acres of state-owned land have been reclaimed over the past three months.(May-July 2025)

According to the ministry, the reclaimed lands are located across 16 provinces.
 

These lands are located in the provinces of Nangarhar, Kunduz, Jawzjan, Takhar, Ghor, Khost, Paktika, Logar, Nimroz, Panjshir, Kapisa, Sar-e Pul, Samangan, Badghis, Maidan Wardak, and Bamiyan. The majority of the land reclaimed during this period was in Nimroz, Maidan Wardak, and Jawzjan, totaling more than 372,000 acres." The commission also reported that, over the past three months, more than 519,000 acres of state land have been identified in 27 provinces, while an additional 750,000 acres in 29 provinces remain under review.

A former government official in Kandahar reported that a delegation tasked by former President Ashraf Ghani to investigate just one case, the Aino Mena township in that city, just took money from “the owner” (Mahmud Karzai, brother of then former president Hamid Karzai), as a fine for having built on state land – USD 27,00 per jerib. Nothing changed. It was an example of how those who had usurped land could challenge even the power of the president of the Republic.

The supreme leader of the IEA, Sheikh Hibatullah, established the Land Grabbing Prevention and Restitution Commission (in Pashto, de zmako de ghasab de makhniwi aw de ghasab shoyo zmako de istirdad kamesuin) by decree in mid-October 2022. The commission is headed by the Minister of Justice, with the Ministers of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, Urban Development and Housing and Work and Social Affairs as members. The commission has 11-member delegations in each province (12 members in Kabul), as well as 146 administrative and technical employees. The supreme leader also appointed a court consisting of a judge, mufti (cleric able to give fatwas or religious decisions), head of the court and a clerk (moharir). He also ratified the draft law that the members of the commission had prepared. The draft law consists of four chapters and 22 articles, in Pashto and Dari languages.