The former chief justice of Nepal Sushila Karki will take oath as interim Prime Minister at 9.00 pm on Friday, reported The Kathmandu Post. Karki will take oath at Sheetal Niwas, the office of the President of Nepal.
After Karki's oath, the first Cabinet meeting will recommend House dissolution as demanded by the agitating Gen Z protestors.
It reported that President Ramchandra Paudel is preparing to appoint Karki as the PM after various stakeholders holding negotiations on forming the interim government reached an agreement on her name.
Preparations are underway at the President’s Office Sheetal Niwas to administer the oath of office to Karki as PM at 9pm today.
The report also said that a small Cabinet will be announced later today, citing the President’s Office.
As per the recommendation of the new government, the President will carry forward other decisions, Kiran Pokhrel, press advisor to the President, told The Kathmandu Post.
Karki will be appointed as interim prime minister following intense anti-graft protests led to the resignation of incumbent KP Sharma Oli.
The Himalayan nation's worst upheaval in years, which killed 51 people this week and injured more than 1,300 as police fought to control crowds, was sparked by a social media ban, now rolled back. The violence subsided only after Oli resigned.
"Sushila Karki will be appointed interim prime minister," said a constitutional expert consulted by President Ramchandra Paudel and army chief Ashok Raj Sigdel, who sought anonymity as the negotiations are sensitive, reported news agency Reuters.
"They (Gen Z) want her. This will happen today," the source has been quoted as saying, referring to the 'Gen Z' protesters whose popular name derives from the age of most participants.
Nepal's first and only female chief justice, Karki, 73, is known for her honesty, integrity, and stand against corruption.
Her appointment was reported to be formally made after a meeting at Paudel's residence, rescheduled to Friday afternoon from an initial time in the morning, according to a Gen Z source involved in the talks, as per Reuters.
The president's office and the army spokesperson did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on the matter.
The neighbouring Himalayan nation has grappled with political and economic instability since the abolition of its monarchy in 2008, while a lack of jobs drives millions to seek work in other countries and send money home.
Shops began reopening on Friday, among signs that normalcy was returning in the capital of Kathmandu, with cars in the streets and police personnel taking up batons instead of the guns they carried earlier in the week.
Some roads stayed blocked, though streets were patrolled by fewer soldiers than before. Authorities began handing to families the bodies of their loved ones killed in the protests.
"While his friends backed off (from the protests), he decided to go ahead," Karuna Budhathoki said of her 23-year-old nephew, as she waited to collect his body at Kathmandu's Teaching Hospital, as per Reuters.
"We were told he was brought dead to the hospital", the news agency reported.
The 51 dead included 21 protesters, nine prisoners, three police officers and 18 others, police spokesperson Binod Ghimire said, without elaborating, according to Reuters.
It reported that nnother protester who died, Ashab Alam Thakurai, 24, got married only a month earlier, his relatives said.
"The last we spoke to him ... he said he was stuck with the protest. After that we could not contact him ... eventually we found him in the morgue," said his uncle, Zulfikar Alam to Reuters.
With inputs from agencies
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