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|a In Malaysia, land acquisition for alienated land has been carried out to implement various development projects for the benefit of the public and their wellbeing toward achieving Vision 2020. Other than alienated land, the waqf land has also been included in the land acquisition by the Government. In general, waqf land may be acquired by Government using the Land Acquisition Act (LAA) 1960. However, in the Land Acquisition Act (LAA) 1960, there is no specific procedure for the acquisition of waqf land. This has led to the issue of the w aqf land being taken by state authorities not for the purposes of maslahah ammah as required by Shariah law, but for the general development of the state. This issue has been proven through a study conducted in the state of Kedah where there have been several development projects such as double-track railway project, shopping complex and other development projects on waqf lands. Therefore, the aim for this study is to examine the waqf land acquisition in Kedah in order to propose amendments to the Land Acquisition Act (LAA) 1960. In order to achieve this, two objectives were developed. The first objective was to examine the issues and problems of waqf land acquisition cases in Kedah. The second objective was to propose improvements in waqf land acquisition using state of Kedah as a case study. This study employed the qualitative approach with the application of case study as the research design. Four cases on waqf land acquisition in Kedah were studied. Data collection was divided into two groups that is primary data and secondary data. The primary data was collected through interviews with respondents from waqf officer in Majlis Agama Islam Kedah (MAIK) and Majlis Agama Islam Pulau Pinang (MAIPP), deputy director in Jabatan Ketua Pengarah Tanah dan Galian (JKPTG), senior lecturer from Department of Real Estate and Management Universiti Tun Hussien Onn Malaysia (UTHM), land acquisition expert, lawyer and town planner whereas the secondary data were obtained through documents, books, articles, journals and other sources of reading materials. Content analysis was applied to analyse the four cases on waqf land acquisition in order to identify the issues and problems while respondents' perceptions were coded in analysis to propose improvements in waqf land acquisition in Kedah. It was found that several sections of the Land Acquisition Act (LAA) 1960 need to be amended to include a special section for waqf land. This is due to the use of waqf land for contribution to the economy rather than fulfilling the need of maslahah ammah as stated in the Shariah law. This study has contributed to the field of waqf by recommending a proposal for the amendments of Land Acquisition Act (LAA) 1960 to include a special section on waqf land and its stakeholders.
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