Former Nepalese chief justice Sushila Karki is likely to be appointed as interim prime minister, a source aware of the talks said yesterday after intense anti-graft protests led to the resignation of Nepalese prime minister K.P. Sharma Oli.
The Himalayan nation’s worst upheaval in years, which killed 51 people this week and injured more than 1,300 as police fought to control crowds, was sparked by a social media ban, now rolled back. The violence subsided only after Oli resigned.
“Sushila Karki will be appointed interim prime minister,” said a constitutional expert consulted by Nepalese President Ramchandra Paudel and army chief Ashok Raj Sigdel, who sought anonymity as the negotiations are sensitive.
Photo: Reuters
“They [Gen Z] want her. This will happen today,” the source added, referring to the “Gen Z” protesters whose popular name derives from the age of most participants.
Nepal’s first and only female chief justice, Karki, 73, is known for her honesty, integrity and stand against corruption.
Her appointment was likely to be formally made after a meeting at Paudel’s residence after press time last night, a Gen Z source involved in the talks said.
Nepal has grappled with political and economic instability since the abolition of its monarchy in 2008, while a lack of jobs has driven millions to seek work in other countries and send money home.
Shops began reopening yesterday, among signs that normalcy was returning in the capital, Kathmandu, with cars in the streets and police personnel taking up batons instead of the guns they carried earlier in the week.
Authorities began handing over to families the bodies of their loved ones killed in the protests.
“While his friends backed off [from the protests], he decided to go ahead,” Karuna Budhathoki said of her 23-year-old nephew, as she waited to collect his body at Kathmandu’s Teaching Hospital. “We were told he was brought dead to the hospital.”
The 51 dead were 21 protesters, nine prisoners, three police officers and 18 others, police spokesperson Binod Ghimire said, without elaborating.
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