Zabihullah Ghazi Nuristani, son of Ghazi Khan, was born in 1952 in Ghaziabad village of Ghaziabad district, Nuristan province.

He graduated from Rahman Baba High School of Kabul in 1970.

Following one year of service in the municipality, he was admitted to the Agriculture Higher Studies Institute and got his bachelor's degree in 1975.

From 1975 to 1978 he worked for Kunar forestry development project as an assistant and for  development programme of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of United Nations as an assistant.

He participated in jihad in Afghanistan in 1978 after the coup d'etat overthrowing Daod Khan.

In 1978 he established a party named Islamic Freedom Front of Afghanistan party in Kamdish district of Nuristan province. (In 2006 the party changed its name to Justice and Development Party of Afghanistan.) Besides armed jihad he also participated in the political struggles.

In 1990 after the victory of the Mujahideen he lived in United States for 17 years and served as a member of Afghan service center and a volunteer board member of the organization World Beyond War.

He says he can speak, write and read Pashto, Dari, Kam Wari (Nuristani) Chitrali, Urdu and English and little French and German.