Sushila Karki’s appointment resonates with Gen Z protesters. She faces challenges including a fragile economy and political factions. HKnown for her uncompromising stance against corruption, Karki is seen as a stabilizing force.
Kathmandu: Nepal is once again at crossroads. Weeks of Gen Z-led protests against corruption, nepotism, and stagnation have shaken the political establishment to its core. With former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli forced to resign and dozens dead after clashes with security forces, the country now turns to an unlikely figure to stabilize its fragile democracy: Former Chief Justice Sushila Karki, a 73-year-old jurist known for her uncompromising stance against graft. She was sworn in on Friday, September 12 to lead the transition as the country’s next prime minister after deadly anti-corruption protests ousted the government. “Congratulations! We wish you success, wish the country success,” President Ram Chandra Paudel said to Karki after the swearing in ceremony broadcast on state television. Karki is not just Nepal’s first woman prime minister, but also one of the rare figures in South Asia to move directly from the judiciary to the highest executive office. For a generation disillusioned by entrenched political families and self-serving parties, her reputation for integrity makes her the most credible face to lead Nepal into fresh elections.
Early Life and Career
Born in 1952 in Biratnagar, an industrial hub in eastern Nepal, Sushila Karki grew up in a society where women rarely considered law as a career. After completing her early education in Nepal, she pursued a Master’s in Political Science at Banaras Hindu University in India, before returning to Kathmandu to secure a law degree from Tribhuvan University. Karki’s student years overlapped with the Nepali Congress’s underground struggle against the monarchy. Though not deeply involved in politics herself, she was associated with the Congress student movement. It was during this period that she met and later married Durga Subedi, a youth leader in the party. Subedi would become notorious for his role in the 1973 hijacking of a Nepal Airlines plane carrying state funds, an episode intended to finance the Congress’s armed struggle for democracy. While his life was steeped in political militancy, Karki carved her path in the courtroom rather than the street.
Beginning her professional career in 1979, Karki quickly gained recognition as a fearless lawyer. She was unafraid to take cases others avoided, often defending principles of transparency and accountability in a judicial culture tightly controlled by politics. By 2004 she had risen to the position of Senior Advocate in the Nepal Bar Association. Her entry into the Supreme Court in 2010 as a permanent justice marked the start of her most visible years. Karki stood out in a bench often seen as pliant to the interests of ruling parties. She earned public respect for tackling corruption cases head-on. In 2012, she was part of a bench that jailed sitting Information Minister JP Gupta for corruption, an unprecedented ruling at the time.
Defiance at the Top
Karki’s appointment as Nepal’s first woman Chief Justice in 2016 was historic, but her tenure was turbulent. She became a lightning rod for political ire after consistently challenging executive overreach. Among her most controversial judgments was the annulment of the government’s choice for police chief, Jaya Bahadur Chand. The decision triggered a retaliatory impeachment motion in Parliament, jointly backed by the two largest coalition parties. Karki was suspended just a month before her scheduled retirement. Though the Supreme Court later reinstated her, the episode exposed how entrenched corruption and political manipulation remained. International observers, including the United Nations, condemned the impeachment attempt as politically motivated.
Despite this bruising end, Karki’s year at the top set precedents. She presided over cases that banned commercial surrogacy in favour of altruistic arrangements, and she oversaw the conviction of three former Inspectors General of Police in a multimillion-dollar scam. Her judgments were not always beyond criticism — she was faulted for recommending politically affiliated judges to the bench — yet her insistence on independence and transparency left a lasting mark.
Gen-Z Favourite
Retirement did not blunt Karki’s voice. In speeches and interviews, she consistently called out the political class for eroding institutions through patronage and graft. “We see corruption everywhere but we don’t speak,” she said in one widely shared address, urging Nepal’s youth to break the silence. She often expressed faith in younger generations, arguing that the old guard had failed to deliver and that “100 percent” of her support lay with the youth stepping forward. This outlook resonated strongly with Gen Z protesters, whose movement was triggered by a government social media ban but driven by deeper frustration over corruption and inequality. Their campaign against “nepo kids” — children of political elites flaunting wealth online — quickly gained momentum. In the leaderless uprising that forced Oli’s resignation, Karki’s name emerged as a unifying choice for interim leadership.
Unlike traditional politicians, Karki was propelled into relevance not by party machinery but through online debates, polls, and endorsements on restored social media platforms. Protesters viewed her as a transitional figure: incorruptible, courageous, and unattached to party patronage networks. Her judicial record gave credibility to the demand for free and fair elections. Observers also drew parallels with Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh, another anti-graft figure who assumed interim leadership after a youth uprising. Like Yunus, Karki is not expected to be a long-term politician but a caretaker who can guide the nation through an electoral reset.
The Road Ahead
Nepal’s political culture is deeply factional, and her lack of executive experience could limit her ability to balance competing interests. She will also inherit a fragile economy, disillusioned youth, and the unfinished business of transitional justice from the Maoist insurgency era. Her moral authority may buy time, but institutional reforms require more than goodwill.
From a young lawyer in Biratnagar to the first woman Chief Justice of Nepal and the country’s first woman Prime Minister, Sushila Karki’s trajectory is emblematic of both progress and paradox. She never sought political power, yet finds herself at the centre of Nepal’s most dramatic generational upheaval in decades. For Nepal’s restless youth, she embodies a rare blend of courage, credibility, and independence. For the political establishment, her rise is a reminder that public patience with corruption has run out. Whether she succeeds as interim leader remains to be seen. But in a country yearning for clean governance, the ascent of Sushila Karki signals that Nepal’s next chapter will be written under the watchful eyes of its youngest citizens.