Former chief justice Karki takes oath as Nepal's first female leader after unrest
The only woman to have served as chief justice, Karki was the preferred choice of the protesters who cite her reputation for honesty and integrity and a stance against corruption.
Highlights:
- Nepal's first female chief justice named interim head
- Shops reopen, cars back on roads in Kathmandu
- Authorities begin handing over bodies of those killed
Sushila Karki, a former chief justice, became the first woman to lead Nepal, after being sworn in as interim leader on Friday after violent anti-graft protests forced prime minister KP Sharma Oli to resign.
Nepal's President Ramchandra Paudel administered the oath of office of secrecy to Karki at a ceremony at Sheetal Niwas, which is the President's Office, according to media reports.
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Earlier, President Paudel's office announced Karki's appointment following negotiations between Paudel, army chief Ashok Raj Sigdel and the protesters who led Nepal's worst upheaval in years, Reuters reported.
Fifty-one people were killed and more than 1,300 injured this week in the anti-graft protests by the 'Gen Z' movement, named for the age of its mainly young supporters.
The protest was sparked by a social media ban that has since been rolled back. The violence subsided only after Oli resigned on Tuesday.
The only woman to have served as chief justice, Karki, 73, was the preferred choice of the protesters who cite her reputation for honesty and integrity and a stance against corruption.
She held the top judicial post for about a year until mid-2017.
RESTORATION OF NORMALCY
Nepal 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.
As the country of 30 million people inched back to normality on Friday - with shops reopened, cars back on roads, and police replacing the guns they wielded earlier this week with batons - families reclaimed bodies of those killed in the protests.
Some roads were still blocked, although streets were patrolled by fewer soldiers than before.
"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.
"We were told he was brought dead to the hospital."
Another protester who died, Ashab Alam Thakurai, 24, had been 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.
