Sushila Karki, a former chief justice and staunch anti-corruption crusader, was named on Friday as the caretaker leader of Nepal, the Himalayan nation whose government collapsed in flames this week.
Ms. Karki, whose appointment was announced by Sunil Bahadur Thapa, a presidential adviser, was the choice of the student protesters whose mass rallies on Monday galvanized an extraordinary sequence of events. Demonstrations against government graft and a ban on social media turned deadly when security forces opened fire on the students, who called themselves Gen Z.
The prime minister resigned to take responsibility for the deaths, and the ban was rescinded. But mobs rampaged across the nation on Tuesday, burning and looting thousands of buildings. Nearly every major state institution was damaged. More than 50 people died in the mayhem, according to the Nepali police on Friday.
Mr. Thapa, the presidential adviser, said that Ms. Karki’s swearing-in and the dissolution of Parliament would take place simultaneously on Friday evening. The Parliament building, like so many others in Kathmandu, the Nepali capital, lies in ruins.
The swearing-in ceremony for Ms. Karki is expected to take place at the president’s office, which was also damaged in the arson attacks. A heavy military presence was nearby, with multiple barricades set up, soldiers and armored vehicles at the ready.
For days, Nepal has effectively been under the control of the army, which set nationwide curfews and sent thousands of soldiers onto the streets. Gen. Ashok Raj Sigdel, the army chief, met repeatedly with both the student protesters and members of the fallen government.
Though Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli resigned on Tuesday, President Ramchandra Poudel did not. He has not been seen in public since Monday, and his role as president constitutionally is to confirm the leader of any government. Mr. Thapa, the presidential adviser, said that Mr. Poudel had signed off on Ms. Karki’s appointment based on the recommendation of the country’s major political parties.
Ms. Karki will form a cabinet in the coming days and will eventually call for elections, Mr. Thapa said, “most likely after six, seven, eight months.”
As speculation about her potential role mounted, Ms. Karki told an Indian news channel this week that she would accept the position because “those young boys and girls, they asked me, they requested me.”
Ms. Karki, 73, has a reputation for standing up to corrupt elements in a graft-ridden society. She also has campaigned for gender rights and been an inspiration for a growing cohort of young female lawyers and judges.
Many Nepalis, especially those active in the Gen Z movement, are angry about corruption, complaining how a small number of elite Nepalis are able to accumulate vast estates for their children.
With limited career prospects at home, educated young Nepalis have fled the country, a brain drain that has further damaged the nation’s economy. Every day, a couple thousand Nepali laborers depart their homeland for menial jobs overseas.
In a sign of the continuing chaos in Nepal, where many official documents and records have gone up in smoke, Ms. Karki’s online biography was unavailable. In fact, the entire Supreme Court website was not operational.
Balaram K.C., a former Supreme Court justice, said that Ms. Karki boldly opposed corruption during her judicial tenure. But he said he could not comment on her suitability as Nepal’s interim leader.
“Being a justice and being a prime minister are two different things,” he said.
Alex Travellicontributed reporting.
Hannah Beech is a Times reporter based in Bangkok who has been covering Asia for more than 25 years. She focuses on in-depth and investigative stories.
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