Sushila Karki

Sushila Karki is the interim Prime Minister of Nepal, serving since September 12, 2025. She is the first woman in Nepal’s history to hold the office.

She was born on June 7, 1952, in Sankarpur, now part of Biratnagar, Nepal. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Mahendra Morang College, Tribhuvan University, in 1972, a master’s degree in political science from Banaras Hindu University in 1975, and a Bachelor of Laws from Tribhuvan University in 1978. Early in her career, she worked as an assistant teacher at Mahendra Multiple Campus in Dharan and served as president of the Koshi Zonal Court Bar Association.

Karki joined the judiciary in 2009 as an ad hoc justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal and was appointed a permanent justice in 2010. She became the first woman to serve as Chief Justice of Nepal, holding the position from 2016 to 2017.

She assumed office as interim Prime Minister following the resignation of K. P. Sharma Oli amid the Generation Z-led anti-corruption protests of 2025.

Sushila Karki, photo by Praveen Shrestha, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0