The Tamesis
February 3, 2026
kathmandu – Prime Minister Sushila Karki said leaders of the Generation Z movement in September exerted strong pressure on her to appoint specific individuals as ministers when forming an interim government, forcing her to include figures who had earlier resigned from ministerial posts in the candidacy.
Speaking in the National Assembly on Monday, Karki said the pressure came from the early stages of government formation after he was appointed prime minister last September, when the country faced a political vacuum and an interim government had to be formed outside traditional party structures.
“The cabinet was not formed immediately after I took oath on September 12, 2025,” Karki told the upper house. “We are not people from the party, which is why we have to look for people from outside (unaffiliated with the party). There is huge pressure from Gen Z leaders to include certain people in ministerial positions.”
The prime minister revealed that the names put forward under pressure include Mahabir Pant, Kulman Ghising, Jagdish Karel and Bablu Gupta. She said some of them were reluctant to join the cabinet, but pressure from Gen Z leaders left her with no choice.
“The pressure is that we have to get them into cabinet,” she said. “I had to plead with my hands to bring some of them into government.”
Karki also said there was pressure to bring Gupta into the cabinet. Recalling the circumstances under which Pan joined the government, she said youth leader Sultan Gurung personally brought him in. “Pan came from the streets selling books and was embraced and persuaded by Sultan Gurung,” the prime minister said.
She further said that even at the time of appointment, she had agreed to allow some ministers, including Ghising, to leave the cabinet if they chose to contest elections. “The pressure is to appoint them, but there is also pressure that they should be free to leave at any time,” Kalki said.
She shared that Ban was appointed under similar circumstances and left the cabinet dissatisfied with the government’s inability to implement the laws he advocated.
“Pan left in anger,” Carkey told the House. “He asked for some laws. Although they are necessary, they cannot be enacted in a short period of time.”
Karki was appointed as Prime Minister on September 12, 2025, a day after President Ramchandra Paudel exercised his constitutional power to appoint her as the head of the interim government following the protests on September 8-9 and the resignation of then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.
She has been given a six-month term to lead the country and hold elections by March 5, 2026, marking her as Nepal’s first female prime minister and chief executive.
In her first appearance in the House of Representatives, she said she did not become prime minister to rule the country.
“Following the call of the younger generation seeking change, I accepted the responsibility of prime minister under exceptional circumstances. This decision was taken in consultation with the political parties and in discussions with the president. It is necessary to get the broken constitutional system back on track and bring the country out of crisis,” she said.
She praised the National Assembly as a mature institution with high-level statesmanship and said her government would respect and abide by the guidance of the House of Representatives.
