Who is Sushila Karki, the new leader of Nepal?

Karki, 73, the country’s first female Chief Justice, has a reputation for standing up to corruption in a graft-ridden society.

Nepal: Nepal installed Sushila Karki, a former Chief Justice of Nepal’s Supreme Court, as the leader of an interim government Friday, after anger over a bloody crackdown on protests forced out the prime minister.

Days of protests, triggered by a move last week to ban social media, reflected widespread anger, built up over years in Nepal, over official corruption and economic inequality.

The death toll from the protests jumped to 51, including protesters, police, prisoners and others, a police spokesperson said Friday. Arson attacks left government buildings in ruins, and the military patrolled the capital, Kathmandu, as citizens cleared debris.

Led by teenagers and young adults, the protests were the most widespread in Nepal since it became a democratic republic in 2008. De facto leaders of the protest movement, who called themselves Gen Z, met with military officials this week and said they supported Karki, who is known as an anti-corruption activist.

Who is Sushila Karki?

Karki has not only taken on corruption but has built a reputation of challenging the political establishment.

Two of Nepal’s ruling parties tried to impeach her after she ruled to revoke the government’s appointment of a new Inspector General of police. The effort, which the United Nations called “politically motivated,” was dropped after public pressure.

The Chief Justice who succeeded her, Gopal Parajuli, was fired in 2018 after being accused of faking his date of birth, an accusation he denied. Karki said at the time that during her tenure she had made it mandatory for judges to submit their academic records to discourage justices from illegally extending their tenures after the required retirement age of 65.

She also campaigned for women’s rights and served as an inspiration for young female lawyers and judges.

“As someone who has always wanted to see a female leader leading the country, it’s exciting,” said Prashamsa Subedi, a 23-year-old law student in Kathmandu. Subedi was among the movement organizers who spoke with Karki to ask her to step in as interim prime minister.

Many Nepalis, especially those active in the Gen Z protest movement, complain that a small number of elite Nepalis are able to accumulate wealth and advantages for their children.

Karki told an Indian news channel that she would accept the position because “those young boys and girls, they asked me, they requested me.”

Karki will form a Cabinet and eventually call for elections “most likely after six, seven, eight months,” said Sunil Bahadur Thapa, a presidential adviser who announced her appointment.

What happened during the protests?

Protests began Monday in Kathmandu and other parts of the country and grew rapidly. In the capital, protesters accused police of opening fire on crowds of young demonstrators who had made their way toward the parliament complex and blocked highways.

After a day of deadly clashes, the government repealed a social media ban Tuesday that had set off public anger. But that move did little to ease the unrest.

By Tuesday, the prime minister and four other ministers had resigned. That night, the Nepali army took control of the streets at 10 pm.

What led to the protests?

A social media ban lit the fuse. Last week, Nepalese authorities banned 26 social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and WeChat, after a deadline elapsed for the companies to comply with new requirements to register with the government.

The ban raised fears that speech could be restricted for Nepal’s 30 million people and could also hurt tourism. The social media blackout also cut off some 2 million Nepali workers abroad from their families. Nepal’s economy is heavily reliant on the remittances from these workers.

The demonstrators, who have no single leader, describe themselves as the voice of Nepal’s Gen Z who are angry over corruption, unemployment and inequality.

In the weeks leading to the violence, the social media hashtag #nepokids began trending in Nepal on posts that purported to show the lavish lifestyles enjoyed by children of the political elite in a country where most young people struggle to make a living.

The outrage was rooted in social and economic problems that had been growing for years, with jobs as the central issue. A majority of Nepalis work without officially reported jobs, mostly in farming. And unemployment is heavily concentrated among younger adults.

Finding no opportunities at home, more than 1,000 young men and women leave the country every day to serve long-term contracts in the oil-rich countries of the Persian Gulf and Malaysia. Tens of thousands work in India as seasonal migrant laborers. Government data shows that more than 741,000 left the country last year, mainly to find work in construction or agriculture.

The rest of Nepal relies heavily on the remittances those workers abroad send home. In 2024, the $11 billion they sent accounted for more than 26% of the country’s economy.