Weekly Summary
This week focused on land, governance, and public order, as the Pokhara landless squatters’ bulldozer-triggered fear and 35-day ultimatum escalated into a direct dispute with central pressure, while Prime Minister Shah’s commitment to identify landless citizens and President Paudel’s ordinance to amend some Nepal acts advanced national legal-policy moves. In parallel, multiple accountability cases and enforcement actions unfolded, including the arrest of Smart Telecom’s former Managing Director Sarvesh Joshi, the filing of corruption action against former minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki and 14 others in the Pokhara airport corruption case, and arrests tied to indecent and obscene behavior toward duty female police officers (five arrested). The week also saw leadership and institutional reshuffles and tightening traffic and weather impacts, highlighted by ongoing pressure around Rastriya Banijya Bank board member Hari Silwal’s resignation demand, application processes for regulators like Nepal Telecommunications Authority chairman and members, and disruptions from rain and landslides blocking roads plus a night travel ban on the BP Highway.
Forex remained relatively stable over the week: USD/NPR moved within 151.11-152.76 (0.45% net change), starting at NPR 152.16 on May 03 and ending at NPR 151.48 on May 10; other major pairs traded in narrow ranges (CAD 110.89-112.26, AUD 109.47-110.13, GBP 205.68-206.92, JPY 9.66-9.73). Local fine gold showed a uptrend of NPR 4,100 per tola, ending at NPR 298,900; international gold closed near NPR 267,894 per tola; local silver remained uptrend around NPR 5,300; international silver closed near NPR 4,566.
