Nepal under curfew after violent Gen Z protests, no decision yet on interim chief, now Kulman Ghising emerges as frontrunner after Sushila Karki
Nepal stayed under tight restrictions and curfew on Thursday, 11th September, as the country tried to recover from days of violent Gen Z-led protests. The protests, led largely by youths calling themselves Gen Z, have left 31 people dead and more than 600 injured so far. In Kathmandu, the Army requested citizens to remain indoors while soldiers continued to patrol streets following protesters burning down government buildings earlier this week. The unrest has also resulted in over 13,000 prisoners being released from prisons in Nepal‘s 77 districts. With the government having collapsed, attention has now shifted to forming an interim administration. Protest leaders and the Nepal Army, which has temporarily taken control, are holding talks on who will take charge next. No decision yet on interim chief With no government at place, the army has taken the responsibility of maintaining law and order. At the same, initiatives have started to form an interim government led by a interim chief who will oversee the conduct of a national election. Several names have emerged for the post of interim chief. As discussions continue, three names are now being considered for the interim chief: former Chief Justice Sushila Karki, Kathmandu’s 35-year-old mayor Balen Shah, and Kulman Ghising, the former head of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). The final choice will be made after protest leaders and Army officials sit together to reach an agreement. If things move smoothly, the country could soon see a new interim government taking charge. At first, the strongest name that came up was that of Nepal’s first female Chief Justice, Sushila Karki. Reports suggested that Karki had even agreed over a phone call with the Army to take charge as interim Prime Minister after GenZ members elected her in an online poll. However, no final decision has been made so far. Now, another figure has emerged as a frontrunner, Kulman Ghising, the man credited with ending Nepal’s long and painful electricity load-shedding. Background of Kulman Ghising Kulman Ghising has become a name familiar to every household in Nepal due to his contribution to ending one of the nation’s largest issues, decades of debilitating power outages. A trained electrical engineer, Ghising started his professional journey with the Nepal Electricity Authority way back in 1994. In 2016, he was made managing director of NEA, a position in which he was instrumental in ending up to 18 hours a day of load-shedding that had exasperated the whole country. Ghising graduated from India Ghising was born in eastern Nepal, but he graduated in electrical engineering from the Regional Institute of Technology in Jamshedpur district of Jharkhand, India. He further took a master’s degree in power systems engineering from Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu. His success earned him universal public admiration, but his career was also marred by political obstacles. In March 2025, the then-Premier K.P. Sharma Oli axed Ghising as NEA chief a few months shy of the end of his term. The action drew immense criticism from opposition leaders and civil society, who felt his removal was political, not based on performance. Ghising, however, remains immensely popular as an effective technocrat who has produced results for the common people. His image as a problem-solver has now catapulted him to centre stage again, this time as one of the front-runners to steer Nepal through one of its largest political crises in years.
Nepal stayed under tight restrictions and curfew on Thursday, 11th September, as the country tried to recover from days of violent Gen Z-led protests. The protests, led largely by youths calling themselves Gen Z, have left 31 people dead and more than 600 injured so far. In Kathmandu, the Army requested citizens to remain indoors while soldiers continued to patrol streets following protesters burning down government buildings earlier this week.
The unrest has also resulted in over 13,000 prisoners being released from prisons in Nepal‘s 77 districts. With the government having collapsed, attention has now shifted to forming an interim administration. Protest leaders and the Nepal Army, which has temporarily taken control, are holding talks on who will take charge next.
No decision yet on interim chief
With no government at place, the army has taken the responsibility of maintaining law and order. At the same, initiatives have started to form an interim government led by a interim chief who will oversee the conduct of a national election. Several names have emerged for the post of interim chief.
As discussions continue, three names are now being considered for the interim chief: former Chief Justice Sushila Karki, Kathmandu’s 35-year-old mayor Balen Shah, and Kulman Ghising, the former head of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). The final choice will be made after protest leaders and Army officials sit together to reach an agreement. If things move smoothly, the country could soon see a new interim government taking charge.
At first, the strongest name that came up was that of Nepal’s first female Chief Justice, Sushila Karki. Reports suggested that Karki had even agreed over a phone call with the Army to take charge as interim Prime Minister after GenZ members elected her in an online poll. However, no final decision has been made so far. Now, another figure has emerged as a frontrunner, Kulman Ghising, the man credited with ending Nepal’s long and painful electricity load-shedding.
Background of Kulman Ghising
Kulman Ghising has become a name familiar to every household in Nepal due to his contribution to ending one of the nation’s largest issues, decades of debilitating power outages.
A trained electrical engineer, Ghising started his professional journey with the Nepal Electricity Authority way back in 1994. In 2016, he was made managing director of NEA, a position in which he was instrumental in ending up to 18 hours a day of load-shedding that had exasperated the whole country.
Ghising graduated from India
Ghising was born in eastern Nepal, but he graduated in electrical engineering from the Regional Institute of Technology in Jamshedpur district of Jharkhand, India. He further took a master’s degree in power systems engineering from Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu. His success earned him universal public admiration, but his career was also marred by political obstacles.
In March 2025, the then-Premier K.P. Sharma Oli axed Ghising as NEA chief a few months shy of the end of his term. The action drew immense criticism from opposition leaders and civil society, who felt his removal was political, not based on performance.
Ghising, however, remains immensely popular as an effective technocrat who has produced results for the common people. His image as a problem-solver has now catapulted him to centre stage again, this time as one of the front-runners to steer Nepal through one of its largest political crises in years.
