"Not Here To Taste Power": Nepal's New PM Sets A 6-Month Deadline

Sushila Karki, Nepal's interim Prime Minister and former Chief Justice of its Supreme Court, has said that she and her team are not interested in power and would hand over the country's responsibility to a new parliament within six months. 

Addressing the media after taking charge as interim Prime Minister, the 73-year-old said, "My team and I are not here to taste power. We won't stay for more than six months. We will hand over the responsibility to the new parliament. We won't succeed without your support," she said.

Ms Karki praised the nationwide 'Gen-Z' protests against corruption that toppled the KP Sharma Oli government in Nepal and said those killed during the agitation would be recognised as "martyrs". She announced a compensation of 1 million Nepali rupees to the families of each victim. The interim government, she said, would bear the treatment costs of those injured and also help them financially.

According to The Himalayan Times, the number of deaths in the recent protests has climbed to 72 -- this includes 59 demonstrators, 10 prison inmates, and three police officers.

"I have never seen such a transformation in just 27 hours of protests. We must work with determination," she said.

The interim Prime Minister flagged cases of vandalism and said the government will investigate them and also compensate those who have suffered damage to their property.

"Looking at what happened in the name of protests, it seems as if it was executed in a planned way, raising questions of a conspiracy," she said, according to a report in The Kathmandu Post.

"Personal properties were also burnt down; we will not leave them, the government will work on measures to give some compensation. It can be through soft loans or any other measures. Those involved in the incident of vandalism will be investigated," she said.

Nepal, she said, was going through an economic crisis and the interim government's priority would be reconstruction and economic stability.

In a shocking turn of events in India's neighbourhood, nationwide protests against corruption that erupted on September 8 have effected a regime change. The young protesters, who call themselves Gen-Z, recommended Ms Karki as the country's interim leader who could steer it through this transition. The Sushila Karki cabinet has been entrusted with running the government till a general election is held and a new dispensation takes charge.