Sushila Karki, Nepal’s first female PM, steers return to polls after Gen-Z revolt: From discord to Discord, and beyond

The images were seared into the world’s memory in just 72 hours, with both fear and awe at what was happening in Nepal in September 2025. The parliament building in Kathmandu was set on fire. The Prime Minister’s residence was looted and set alight. Military helicopters were seen evacuating ministers from besieged homes.

All this ignited, in the immediate, by a ban on Instagram; though years of popular dissatisfaction with entrenched elites was the fuel. The protesters were mostly from ‘Generation Z’, a pop-culture name for those barely 30 or younger, born roughly between 1997 and 2012

And, at the end of it all, a 73-year-old former judge — who later remembered fondly her days studying peacefully beside the river Ganga — was chosen to lead the nation.

Sushila Karki was sworn in as Nepal’s 42nd Prime Minister on September 12, 2025, becoming the first woman in the Himalayan republic’s history to hold the office. A former chief justice of Nepal, she became Nepal’s leader as a direct consequence of the country’s most violent political unrest in a generation.

Her ascent was fueled by discord and decided on Discord, the latter being the name for a gaming-communication platform.

Also read | Social media at heart of Gen-Z revolution that toppled Nepal govt

Then, on September 4, 2025, PM KP Sharma Oli’s government suspended 26 social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and X, for failing to register with Nepali authorities under a controversial new digital law.

By the morning of September 8, thousands of young protesters, many of them still in school uniforms, gathered at Maitighar Mandala in central Kathmandu and marched towards the parliament. Their grievances were broader than a single law or Instagram as social lifeline.

They raised slogans against corruption, nepotism, the so-called “nepo kids”, children of ruling-class politicians who flaunted lavish lifestyles on social media even as the platforms were being blocked for ordinary citizens.

Analysts said the Oli regime banned social media to stop all the group talk about nepotism, among other such reasons. The ban brought the groups and the talk to the street instead.

The government responded with security forces opening fire at the crowd, killing 17 protesters in Kathmandu alone. Two more were killed in police action outside the capital; hundreds were injured. Doctors at a Kathmandu morgue, which received 47 bodies over two days, determined that the majority had died from high-velocity gunshot wounds to the head, neck, chest, or abdomen.

The killings were documented in real time on social networks after the ban was belatedly lifted. By that time, it had transformed into a conflagration.

The following day, Kathmandu burned — the parliament building, the Supreme Court complex, the prime minister’s and president’s residences, police stations, the headquarters of KP Oli’s Communist Party were targeted.

By the time the army imposed a nationwide curfew on September 10, over 70 people were dead and more than 2,000 injured. Damage to Nepal’s $42 billion economy was later estimated by a government panel at more than $586 million.

Before that, on September 9, under reported persuasion from Nepal Army chief General Ashok Raj Sigdel, KP Oli submitted his resignation as PM to President Ramchandra Poudel. “In view of the extraordinary situation in the country, I have resigned to facilitate the solution to the problem,” he wrote.

The organisation at the heart of the protests, Hami Nepal, convened a virtual meeting on the messaging application Discord — a platform originally designed for gamers — in which an estimated 10,000 Nepalis, including members of the diaspora scattered across the globe, debated and voted on who should lead their country.

Sushila Karki’s name emerged from a shortlist of five candidates. General Sigdel served as a crucial bridge between the Gen-Z leadership, the president’s office, and the political parties, resolving sharp disagreements over the constitutional mechanism by which Karki could be appointed.

On September 12, President Poudel dissolved the 275-seat parliament at Karki’s recommendation, and administered the oath of office in a ceremony at the presidential residence, Sheetal Niwas, attended by youth representatives, foreign diplomats, and United Nations officials.

The date for the next elections was later announced as March 21, 2026. In procedural terms, this was two years earlier than the scheduled polls if Oli’s government had served its tenure.

Also read | Sushila Karki’s journey from Nepal’s first female chief justice to first woman PM

The paradox in Sushila Karki’s leadership was not lost on commentators.

A movement that had complained loudly of a generational gap between itself and Nepal’s ageing rulers had chosen a 73-year-old to lead its revolution. But Anish Ghimire, a journalist who was 24 at the time, offered an explanation to Al Jazeera: “People wanted someone they could trust, someone they can look up to. I think the bigger picture is that Gen-Z protesters rallied behind septuagenarian Sushila Karki because, even in her earlier statements to the press, her image as Nepal’s first woman chief justice symbolised integrity and resistance against corruption.”

She joined the 1990 People’s Movement against Nepal’s absolute monarchy and was briefly imprisoned in Biratnagar Jail for it. That experience later inspired her 2019 novel, ‘Kara’ (Prison).

She rose through the judiciary over decades, and in July 2016 made history as the first woman to be appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal.

Her tenure was short and turbulent. When the Supreme Court overturned the government’s appointment of a favoured police chief and selected the highest-ranking officer instead, parliament responded with an impeachment motion that was widely described as “politically motivated”. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at the time said the attempt to remove her raised “serious concerns about the Government’s commitment to transitional justice and the rule of law”.

The motion was eventually withdrawn under public pressure. Karki retired in June 2017. It was precisely this history and reputation that made her the Gen-Z movement’s unlikely hero.

“I did not come to this position because I had sought it,” Karki said in her first public remarks after the swearing-in, “but because there were voices from the streets demanding that Sushila Karki should be given the responsibility.”

Briefing diplomats in October 2025, in one of her most definitive statements about her role, Karki said, “This non-political, transitional government has one sole and non-negotiable mandate: to hold free, fair, and impartial general elections to the House of Representatives on March 5, 2026. We are committed to a maximum six-month term, after which we will peacefully hand over power to a democratically elected government. We are not here to pursue a political agenda, but to pave the way for a new, legitimate one.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who happens to represents Varanasi in parliament, congratulated Karki, calling her appointment “a shining example of women empowerment”.

In an interview before her swearing-in, Karki spoke in both English and Hindi about her affection for India. “Indians treat me as a sister. I am very much impressed with Indian leaders,” she said, addressing Modi directly, “Main Modi ji ko namaskaar karti hoon.” (‘I say greetings to Mr Modi’).

She recalled the Ganga fondly; her hostel at BHU had sat along the riverbank, and she and her peers would sleep on the rooftop terrace on hot summer nights. “I still remember my teachers and friends,” she said.

On September 18, in a formal telephone conversation between the two prime ministers, Karki reaffirmed that elections remained her government’s foremost priority, and that the historical ties between Nepal and India would “continue to be strengthened by multifaceted people-to-people ties”.

In later months, India saw a different kind of connection with Nepal — that related to the spectre of a Gen-Z revolt. Political demonstrations in Ladakh, Assam and Delhi were termed “attempts towards a Nepal-like protest” by police and government agencies. Activist Sonam Wangchuk from Ladakh remains in jail.

Her cabinet included reformist figures. She also established a judicial inquiry commission to investigate the killings and the destruction of public property, and created a Reconstruction Fund for rebuilding government infrastructure.

With elections now being held, a stark fact return to the spotlight. Nepal has not completed a full five-year term of government since the abolition of the monarchy in 2008. Many of the older players like Oli remain in the mix. And younger leaders like Kathmandu mayor Balen Shah are being seen as the future. The transition remains, thus, a work in progress.

This is very different from Bangladesh, another South Asian nation that saw a Gen-Z revolt a year before that. There, the ousted PM Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to death while she’s exiled herself in New Delhi, and her party remained banned in elections just held. Her long-time opponent Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman is now PM of Bangladesh, and interim leader Muhammad Yunus considers his job done.

Nepal under Karki chose a more moderate path than bans and death rows. The election results, therefore, could also test that method.

And when she completed 100 days in office, she spoke of the long-term future. “Anarchy does not bring happiness. Only peace and stability open the door to prosperity. The change we seek is not an achievement that can be accomplished in a day; it is a long and tireless journey,” she said.