Karzai 'to stop officials' land grab'

The spotlight is on officials from the Northern Alliance

Afghan President Hamid Karzai will take measures against ministers in his own cabinet following allegations that they are grabbing land from the poor, the finance minister has said.

Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai said: "This is unacceptable to people and the president is going to soon be taking decisive action to remove this kind of thing."

On Thursday, a top UN official said Vice-president and Defence Minister Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim and others should be removed from office for grabbing the land.

A spokesman for the defence ministry told the BBC the allegations against Marshal Fahim were "all wrong".

All the officials named by the UN envoy are from the Northern Alliance, which is the backbone of the government.

Correspondents say there remains strong factionalism among those in power in Afghan ministries and their supporters.

Crisis

"When land is taken like it was in Kabul a few days ago, this creates a crisis of governance," the finance minister said.

"Ministers should absolutely be forbidden to use public land for private gains."

Ministers that are very directly involved have to be removed Miloon Kothari, UN special envoy

However, Saranwal Mirjan, head of the foreign relations department at the defence ministry, said the UN was being misled by enemies of the defence minister who wanted to take their revenge.

Mr Mirjan said: "These houses are planned according to the master plan for Kabul. This is an issue that's being decided by the municipal authorities in Kabul. Marshal Fahim doesn't have any intention to interfere in the plans of the municipal authorities in Kabul."

Marshal Fahim was a key commander of the fighting force that defeated the Taleban and survived an assassination attempt in the eastern city of Jalalabad in April last year.

Property disputes

The UN's special envoy on the right to adequate housing, Miloon Kothari, said on Thursday he had spoken to people whose houses had been destroyed in Kabul's Shir Pur district to make way for new homes for ministers.

Strong factionalism dominates Karzai's government

In addition to Marshal Fahim, he named the Education Minister, Yunis Qanooni, and said he had a list of others.

A spokesman for Mr Qanooni told the AFP news agency he was unaware of the allegations.

Mr Kothari said: "There has to be change, and ministers that are very directly involved have to be removed. I don't see what else can be done.

"A number of ministers... including the minister of defence are directly involved in this kind of occupation and dispossession of poor people, some of whom have been there for 25 to 30 years."

Mr Kothari warned that if property disputes were not tackled they could return the country to "decades of conflict".

Mr Kothari said growing land speculation in cities was "putting land and housing out of the reach of the poor".