Kathmandu: Nepal’s former chief justice Sushila Karki was sworn in as the head of an interim government Friday night after a breakthrough was made at Sheetal Niwas, the President’s Office, over Gen Z’s demand of Parliament dissolution.
The new administration headed by Karki—the first woman to lead Nepal—has six months to hold fresh elections.
With an agreement in place to form a new government, preparations were hurriedly made at Sheetal Niwas for the swearing-in ceremony. Nepal chief secretary Eaknarayan Aryal reached Sheetal Niwas to assist with preparations for both the formation of the government and the upcoming cabinet meeting. Nepal army chief General Ashok Raj Sigdel also attended the high-profile ceremony.
The talks were earlier caught in a stalemate as President Ram Chandra Paudel—who had been holding talks with various stakeholders including constitutional experts, political leaders—was not in favour of dissolving Parliament.
Karki, 73, was reported to have told Paudel that she would head the interim government only if Parliament was dissolved first.
Following a full day of discussions on Friday, a consensus was reached to appoint Karki as the interim head. As part of the agreement, the House of Representatives is set to be dissolved. President Poudel, who had previously insisted that the House should only be dissolved after Karki assumed office, has since softened his stance.
On Friday, former prime minister Baburam Bhattarai expressed support for the decision to appoint Karki as the head of the interim government and urged the President should formally swear her in at the earliest to end the uncertainty in Nepal.
After the protests that began 8 September in Kathmandu and later spread outside the next day, Nepal plunged into a state of uncertainty as there was a power vacuum in the country. The protests were led by Hami Nepal, a youth-led foundation that galvanised a national movement demanding sweeping political reform.
Hami Nepal’s president Sudan Gurung and his supporters had been calling for the immediate dissolution of Parliament and the installation of an interim administration that reflects Nepal’s Gen Z demographic.
“Current top priority: Hami Nepal’s current agenda is to call for the dissolution of the parliament and ensure the mandatory meeting of GenZ youth in decision making meetings,” the group posted on social media.
Gurung, who had been scheduled to meet with Paudel at 9 a.m., waited for more than nine hours without any engagement from the head of state. “Sudan will not speak to staff, intermediaries, or political envoys,” Hami Nepal wrote on its social media page. “He will only meet the President accompanied by his team of Gen Z leaders.”
The group refuted rumours of having met former king Gyanendra and called it “fake news”.
Later in the night, Hami Nepal came out with a statement on the eve of the swearing-in ceremony. “Finally, it’s happening. Our patience and our collective effort are showing results. All the associated VIPs, security personnel, and diplomats have entered Sheetal Niwas for Sapath Grahan. We have taken another step towards a glorified Nepal,” it posted in Discord.
“Let’s be united. Let’s hope together. Let’s allow ourselves to honor the lives of those who sacrificed themselves for this moment. We are Nepali, and together we make NEPAL.”
It further added that “no one from Hami Nepal will be part of this interim government.”
“We promise that only skilled and deserving candidates, those who can lead with honesty and purpose will take part in this government,” it said, adding that Hami Nepal is “not expecting any gains from this.”
Karki was named by protest leaders as their preferred choice to lead the interim government, a proposal that received tentative support from sections of the Nepal army and some civil society leaders.
The country’s first woman chief justice is seen as a symbol of judicial independence and public accountability. Karki served as the chief justice from July 2016 to June 2017.
However, a section of demonstrators outside the army headquarters in Kathmandu had opposed her leadership. Apart from Karki, the names of former CEO of Nepal Electricity Board Kulman Ghising and Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah were doing the rounds as the probable candidates.
President Paudel, meanwhile, was under mounting pressure, with protesters accusing him of ignoring both the voice of the youth and the recommendations from security forces to consider Karki’s leadership.
Also Read: A history of dissent: How a Gen Z revolt brought down Nepal govt in 36 hours
How the protest spread
The Himalayan country’s political landscape was destabilised earlier this week when Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli resigned in response to the spiraling protests. Though President Paudel had requested Oli to lead a caretaker government, the PM reportedly fled his official residence. His whereabouts remain unknown.
With the nation effectively leaderless, protests intensified. Demonstrators torched government buildings, media offices, and even private car dealerships. The official toll now stands at 51.
Violent incidents, including a jailbreak attempt in Kathmandu, prompted the rarely mobilised Nepal army to deploy across the capital. Soldiers now man key checkpoints in Kathmandu.
Meanwhile, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, head of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), issued a 10-point statement expressing solidarity with the protestors.
Prachanda blamed the current political crisis on the “unnatural” alliance between the ruling Nepali Congress and Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and condemned what he called the government’s “barbaric crackdown and massacre” of unarmed youth.
He, however, stopped short of endorsing the demand for an entirely unelected interim government, cautioning against any “unconstitutional exits” that could embolden “regressive forces.”
The former prime minister’s support is seen by political analysts as both a calculated political move and a nod to his party’s historical ties to youth-led uprisings and anti-establishment sentiment in the Himalayan country.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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