Nepal’s Prime Minister Sushila Karki has named three new ministers, just days after the dissolution of parliament was triggered by deadly protests.
Karki, who on Friday became the Himalayan nation’s first female leader, made Om Prakash Aryal home minister, Rameshwar Prasad Khanal finance minister and Kulman Ghising energy minister on Monday.
Aryal is a human rights lawyer who has taken on legal cases in the public interest, Khanal is a former finance secretary who recently recommended major economic reforms, and Ghising is a former state power utility chief credited with ridding the country of its load-shedding problems.
In a ceremony broadcast on television from outside the fire-damaged presidential office, President Ramchandra Paudel swore in the three new ministers.
Known for their anticorruption stances, they will serve alongside Karki in an interim government that has promised to work towards ending corruption. It will govern the country for six months until national elections are held in early March.
Their appointments come less than a week after veteran leader KP Sharma Oli resigned as prime minister amid unrest that deepened when demonstrators were shot dead by police on Monday.
Led by Gen Z, the protests quickly escalated, with key public buildings, including Parliament, set ablaze.
The demonstrations started on September 8 over a short-lived social media ban and exacerbated burgeoning popular anger over systemic corruption and poverty.
At least 72 people died in last week’s violence, the Nepalese authorities said on Sunday.
After young activists recommended Karki for the role, the 73-year-old former chief justice was named as the country’s interim leader late on Friday.
In her first public comments, she said on Sunday that the country should come together to rebuild, promising that she would work “according to the thinking of the Gen Z generation”.
“What this group is demanding is the end of corruption, good governance and economic equality,” she said.
Speaking from the Civil Service Hospital, Subash Dhakal, a 19-year-old protester who was shot in the knees, said he was proud of his role in bringing about a change in government.
“I have no regrets at all,” he told the AFP news agency.
“I have done it not only for me. It was for everyone, from my family to all brothers. This pain is ephemeral, but this will definitely bring about some changes.”
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