AGENCIES

The newly formed 15-member Nepali cabinet has five female ministers, ensuring 33 percent representation of women for the first time, as enshrined in the country’s constitution.

Rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah was sworn in as prime minister of Nepal on Friday, tasked with restoring political stability and creating jobs in the poor Himalayan nation long troubled by fragile governments and weak growth prospects.

His move to appoint one-third women ministers to the cabinet has been hailed as a historic step toward inclusive governance.

The five women ministers appointed are Sobita Gautam (law, justice and parliamentary affairs), Pratibha Rawal (general administration), Sita Badi (women and children), Nisha Mehta (health and population), and Geeta Chaudhary (agriculture).

Meanwhile, Nepal’s former prime minister, KP Sharma Oli, was arrested yesterday as police investigate whether he was negligent in failing to prevent dozens of deaths in a crackdown on Gen Z-led anti-corruption protests last September, officials said.

Oli’s arrest, which his lawyer said was illegal and sparked protests by supporters who clashed with police, followed rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah’s swearing in as prime minister on Friday and a recommendation by a panel investigating violence during the protests that he should be prosecuted for negligence.

His former home minister, Ramesh Lekhak, was also arrested.

Seventy-six people were killed last September during a police crackdown and arson and violent unrest during the protests, which led to Oli’s resignation.

After his arrest, supporters staged protest rallies and clashed with police who tried to stop them burning tyres near the prime minister’s office. Police lobbed a teargas shell and used batons to break up the protests, injuring one person, witnesses said.

Oli’s Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) called his arrest illegal and said it was an act of “revenge”. It demanded his immediate release and said more protests were planned for Sunday.

Shankar Pokhrel, a senior party official, told reporters that protest notes against the arrest would be handed to the government in all 77 districts of the country today.

Home Minister Sudan Gurung dismissed the criticism, saying on Facebook: “It is the beginning of justice. The country will take a new direction now.”

Oli was prime minister four times between 2015 and 2025 but never served a full five-year term. In 2020, he published a new political map that included a small stretch of disputed land controlled by India, giving him a popularity boost in Nepal.

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