Nepali President to appoint former chief justice Karki as acting PM

Ram Chandra Poudel held consultations with experts

Nepali President Ram Chandra Poudel has expressed readiness to appoint Sushila Karki, the former chief justice of the country’s Supreme Court, as head of the interim government.

Poudel has held consultations with experts, and on Thursday evening, he met with Karki. According to the news portal, he “agreed in principle to nominate Karki” as the head of the interim government. However, the head of state does not support the idea of dissolving the parliament.

Meanwhile, the Constitution of Nepal does not allow appointing a prime minister who is not a member of the House of Representatives, unless the legislature is dissolved. The president is trying to find an alternative solution that would make it possible to appoint Karki without parliament dissolution, said a news portal.

Talks on forming an interim cabinet following the resignation of Prime Minister Sharma Oli were held earlier at the headquarters of the Nepali Army but produced no result, the Kathmandu Post reported.

Earlier this week, protests against corruption and a ban on social media escalated into riots in Kathmandu and other Nepali cities.

According to the police, more than 50 people were killed in unrest led by students and Gen Z activists, and more than 1,000 people have been injured.

On September 9, the authorities lifted the ban on social media amid the protests. The Nepali military are fanning out across the streets of Nepal. A curfew was extended in Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur until Saturday morning.