KATHMANDU: Sushila Karki, 73, was sworn in as Nepal's interim Prime Minister late Friday evening, thus becoming the first-ever woman PM of the Himalayan nation.
Karki, also the country’s first woman Chief Justice, took the oath of office from President Ram Chandra Poudel who held extensive consultations with leaders of the Gen-Z protests, constitutional experts, and the army chief, throughout the day.
Following the fall of KP Sharma-Oli led government during the violent Gen-Z protests on Monday, Karki was the pick of activists who have taken to the streets, protesting against Oli's rule.
Discussions with Gen-Z protestors and other stakeholders were prolonged over the issue of dissolving the House of Representatives, the lower house, before the new Prime Minister is sworn in or after it.
Gen-Z protestors agreed on Karki’s name, paving the way for her appointment as Prime Minister even though several non-political candidates were floated as alternatives.
There is, however, no constitutional provision allowing anyone who is not a member of the House of Representatives to hold the post. Karki has been appointed under the "principle of necessity".
According to Article 76 of Nepal’s Constitution, only a member of the House of Representatives can become Prime Minister. This criterion disqualifies Karki, as even members of the National Assembly, the upper house of Parliament, are barred from holding the post.
Likewise, Article 132 (2) of the Constitution prevents her from becoming Prime Minister. It states that no person who has once held the office of Chief Justice or Judge of the Supreme Court shall be eligible for appointment to any government office, except as otherwise provided in the Constitution.
"She was appointed as Prime Minister based on the principle of necessity, a system practiced in Nepal time and again since the 1950 revolution, ” said Bipin Adhikari, a constitutional lawyer. "But the principle of necessity is essentially not the rule of law. If we abandon the Constitution under one pretext or another, a habit develops of violating it, which may bring more trouble in the future, " he stated.
The newly-appointed Prime Minister was born in 1952 into a middle-class family in Morang District's Biratnagar in eastern Nepal. At a time when few girls went to school, her parents encouraged her to pursue education.
Karki came from a political family — her father, inspired by B P Koirala, Nepal's first elected Prime Minister, joined the Nepali Congress. Karki earned her Bachelor's degree (LLB) in law from Tribhuvan University in 1972 and completed a Master’s degree in political science in 1975 from Banaras Hindu University in India's Varanasi. After completing her studies, she began her law practice in Biratnagar in 1979.