Nepals

Nepal’s former Chief Justice Sushila Karki has been appointed as the country’s new interim prime minister, following days of deadly youth protests.

Karki’s appointment was announced by the office of President Ramchandra Poudel on Friday, September 12, and she was sworn into office as the country’s first-ever female prime minister later that day.

“I did not come to this position because I had sought it, but because there were voices from the streets demanding that Sushila Karki should be given the responsibility,” she said during her first public remarks on Sunday.

Here is what we know about Karki.

Who is Sushila Karki?

Following the youth-led “Gen Z” protests against corruption in Nepal, former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned last Tuesday. Karki was appointed on Friday to lead the transitional government until snap elections in March 2026.

Karki, 73, is the first woman to head the government of Nepal.

She was born in June 1952 in what is now Nepal’s eastern city of Biratnagar, about 400km (250 miles) south of Kathmandu, the capital. Karki reportedly attended the Mahendra Morang College in Biratnagar and earned her Bachelor of Arts at age 20. Later, she attended graduate school in India, earning her Master’s degree from Banaras Hindu University before returning to Nepal.

Karki completed her law degree at Tribhuvan University in 1978, according to The Kathmandu Post, and went on to become a lawyer and teach law at Mahendra Multiple Campus in Nepal’s eastern city of Dharan.

Karki became the first female chief justice of Nepal in 2016.

In May 2017, the government tried to suspend her as members of parliament signed an impeachment motion against her after the court, under her leadership, overturned their appointment of Jaya Bahadur Chand as police chief. The court chose the highest-ranking officer, Nawaraj Silwal, for the position instead.

The United Nations labelled the impeachment effort, which was eventually dropped, as “politically motivated”, and Karki retired in June 2017.

What happened in Nepal?

Young people in Kathmandu and other cities took to the streets on September 8 to protest political corruption. There was also anger towards children of Nepali government officials – dubbed “Nepo kids” – who document their lavish lifestyles online.

Days before the protests, the Nepali government had banned more than 20 social media websites in the country for not complying with the government’s demands.

On the first day of protests, some demonstrators broke past police barriers and entered the parliament complex. A violent crackdown by security forces led dozens dead, inflaming tensions further.

The next day, protesters defied curfews to set fire to government buildings, including parliament, and freed thousands of prisoners. Nepali ministers were evacuated by helicopter to ensure their safety.

Many protesters were killed amid clashes with the police. On September 12, a police spokesman said the death toll from the protests had climbed to 51.

In response, Oli, who was elected as PM for the fourth time last year, announced his resignation last Tuesday, September 9. Other ministers also resigned from their posts.

Nepal’s army was deployed late on September 9 in an attempt to restore order. The situation has started to calm down, with schools reopening and businesses resuming operations.

Hami Nepal, the group that organised the protests, held a call on the messaging application, Discord, late last week to choose Nepal’s interim prime minister. About 10,000 Nepalis – including many from the diaspora – participated.

After hours of debate, they chose Karki.

Paudel announced Karki’s appointment on September 12. He also announced that the 275-seat parliament had been dissolved, and elections were then set for March 5, 2026, about two years earlier than planned.

Why Karki?

While the young protesters highlighted the generation gap between them and Nepal’s leaders during their agitation, they ended up picking septuagenarian Karki as their interim leader.

“This has been a concern from people here as well,” Anish Ghimre, a Nepali journalist with the Kathmandu Post, told Al Jazeera, referring to Karki’s age. “But I think the bigger picture here is people wanted someone they could trust, someone they can look up to.”

Ghimre, 24, said the decision was motivated by the young protesters researching Karki’s background and career. He pointed out how Karki has previously said during interviews that “many ministers came to her and they asked for some favour” but that she had refused to comply with their demands.

“Hopefully, after six months, maybe we can see a new face, maybe someone younger,” he added, referring to the March election.

Others also pointed to the selection of Karki being based on her reputation, despite her age.

“Gen Z protesters rallied behind septuagenarian Sushila Karki because, even in her earlier statements to the press, her image as Nepal’s first woman chief justice symbolised integrity and resistance against corruption,” Yog Raj Lamichhane, an assistant professor at the School of Business in Nepal’s Pokhara University, told Al Jazeera.

What has PM Karki done so far?

“We have to work according to the thinking of the Gen Z generation,” Karki said on Sunday.

She acknowledged the youth’s demands for the end of corruption, good governance and economic equality.

“We will not stay here more than six months in any situation. We will complete our responsibilities and pledge to hand over to the next parliament and ministers.”

On Monday, she named three new government ministers: Om Prakash Aryal as home minister, Rameshwar Prasad Khanal as finance minister and Kulman Ghising as energy minister.

What’s next for Nepal?

With the parliament dissolved, Karki is likely to face challenges in passing any new legislation.

“Although the government has changed and parliament dissolved, no concrete programme against corruption has been introduced, underscoring the concerns of the Gen Z movement,” Lamichhane said.

“The interim government must ensure timely elections and also address the challenge of reconstruction.”

Following deadly protests across Nepal, the country has appointed former Chief Justice Sushila Karki as interim prime minister. Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride looks at who she is and the challenges she faces.

Kathmandu, Nepal – Pabit Tandukar was shouting slogans against Nepal’s government outside the country’s parliament building in the capital Kathmandu when he felt sharp pain cutting through his leg.

The 22-year-old university student was taken to the trauma centre of Kathamandu’s Bir Hospital on Monday, where doctors confirmed he had been hit by a live copper bullet.

“We were there for a peaceful protest. They were initially firing tear gas at us and we were pushing back. Suddenly, I was shot,” Tandukar told Al Jazeera.

At least 19 protesters were killed, and hundreds – like Tandukar – were injured after security forces fired live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas shells at youth agitators on Monday, after what began as a peaceful protest descended into violent clashes with law enforcement officers.

The killings have pushed Nepal into a political crisis. Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak resigned from the position on Monday evening, claiming moral responsibility, and on Tuesday, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned.

But the thousands of young people who hit the streets of Kathmandu and other cities in Nepal on Monday, as part of what the organisers have called a Gen-Z movement, are demanding more – a dissolution of parliament and new elections.

The protests have erupted amid growing criticism of alleged corruption, and anger over perceptions that the families of the country’s ruling elite – including leading politicians – live lives of relative luxury while Nepalis struggle with a per capita income of less than $1,400 a year.

Then, the government last week banned 26 social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube and X, after they missed a September 3 deadline to register with the country’s authorities under a controversial new law. That ban further raised anger against the government among young, digitally native Nepalis, though the government said it was trying to stop the use of fake online identities to spread rumours, commit cybercrimes, and disturb social harmony.

By Tuesday, though, that simmering anger and the protests it led to had exploded into even more violence, with the killings of civilians by security forces becoming the lightning rod galvanising youth, who returned to the streets for a second day in a row.

“The government should not have fired bullets at students,” Tandukar said.

‘This one is for KP Oli’

Joining the protest near parliament on Monday, Megraj Giri* aimed a stone at a CCTV placed on the northern wall of the legislature building in New Baneshwor, in the heart of Kathmandu.

The government had imposed a curfew – which was extended on Tuesday – but Giri was defiant. “This one is for KP Oli,” he shouted, referring to the prime minister, as his missile shattered the camera.

That’s not how the organisers of the protest had imagined things would turn out.

“We planned a peaceful protest with cultural events and fun,” said Anil Baniya of Hami Nepal [translated as We Nepal], one of the organisers, speaking to Al Jazeera.

“During the first few hours, it went as planned, until some external forces and political party cadres joined in the protest and agitated the armed forces and pelted stones.”

Organisers have not named specific parties or external agents whom they blame for instigating the violence. But it was when some protesters began to climb the walls of the parliament complex to enter that security forces fired back, Baniya said.

Some of the protesters who were hit were schoolchildren still in their uniforms – it is unclear whether they were among any of the 19 who were killed.

The Kathmandu District Administration Office imposed curfew in that part of the city, and Nepal deployed its army. Armed forces also entered the Civil Service Hospital near Parliament to capture protesters, and shot tear gas, causing chaos in the facility. Toshima Karki, a doctor turned member of parliament, was at the hospital helping the injured when she witnessed the attack.

“No matter what, the government should not have used bullets. They murdered young people,” added Baniya.

Until late on Monday night, videos also emerged showing armed police officers carrying out search operations in houses near the protest area.

Among those killed was Sulov Raj Shrestha, who was studying civil engineering in Kathmandu.

“He was always smiling and had a friendly behaviour,” Sudhoj Jung Kunwar, a friend of Shrestha, recalled, speaking to Al Jazeera. “I just found out; he had his GRE exams today.”

Kathmandu Engineering College, where Shrestha studied, posted on Facebook: “We mourn, we protest, we condemn……  Sulov…..your nation has failed you…”

Political analyst Krishna Khanal blames “sheer negligence” on the part of the government for the killings.

“The young people should have been handled well; even if they crossed the parliament building, there were other ways to control them,” Khanal told Al Jazeera.

The UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Amnesty International have both condemned the killings and called for transparent investigations into the events of Monday.

Speaking to the press late Monday night, Prithvi Subba Gurung, Nepal’s communications and information technology minister, announced the social media ban was being lifted.

But while the ban might be over, it is the killings on Monday that have now emerged as the principal issue inflaming passions on Nepal’s streets.

‘We demand mass resignation’

While the social media ban drew global attention, many protesters said their grievances run much deeper.

“We need to kick these old leaders out of power. We are tired of the same old faces,” said 27-year-old Yugant Ghimire, an artificial intelligence engineer who took part in Monday’s protest.

“The government is on a power trip, there is rampant corruption, no one is accountable,” Ghimire told Al Jazeera.

The movement has found support from sections of the political class, including Balen Shah, the mayor of Kathmandu, who is also a popular rapper.

Posting on social media on Sunday, Shah wrote, “Tomorrow, in this spontaneous rally, no party, leader, worker, lawmaker, or activist will use it for their own interest. I will not attend due to the age limit, but it is important to understand their message. I give my full support.”

Meanwhile, before Monday’s protest, Oli was largely dismissive of the movement. “Just by saying Gen Z, one is free to do anything, just by saying you don’t like it,” Oli said to an audience of his party cadres on Sunday.

That approach appears to have backfired on the government. On Tuesday, as the government imposed an indefinite curfew in Kathmandu, protesters defied those restrictions to set the homes of several politicians on fire.

Organisers of the protests have now released a set of “non-negotiable demands” which include the dissolution of the parliament, mass resignation of parliamentarians, immediate suspension of officials who issued the order to fire on protesters, and new elections.

Protest leader Baniya said the movement would continue “indefinitely until our demands are met”.

“We now have more of a duty to live up to the expectations of our friends who were murdered by the state,” said Baniya. “We need to topple this government, we demand mass resignation and we want them out. This is our country.”