Hundreds of people from different walks of life marched on Kathmandu streets on Saturday demanding impeachment of Lokman Singh Karki, who is currently suspended as the chief of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).

People had turned out to gather at Maitighar and to march towards New Baneshwor at the call of Solidarity for Prof Dr Govinda KC, a loose network of supporters of the orthopaedic surgeon—the first person to have raised the need for Karki’s impeachment.

The demonstrators urged the lawmakers and political parties not to drag their feet and remain firm to get the impeachment motion against Karki endorsed by Parliament.

Dr KC, who also marched with the crowd, later said in an address that he had been demanding action against Karki for breaching jurisdiction and abusing power for personal benefits. “The initiation of impeachment motion shows that the rule of law still prevails in the country,” he said. Dr KC, who has so far staged fast-unto-deaths nine times demanding reforms in the medical education sector, on Saturday called on parliamentarians and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also the chairman of the CPN (Maoist Centre), to bring the impeachment process to a successful end.

“There are two challenges now. The first is to endorse the impeachment motion against Karki. Secondly, since the CIAA is rotten to the core with many commissioners being political appointees, we now have a long-term task of cleansing the anti-graft body by avoiding political appointment,” said Dr Jiwan Kshetry, a close aide to Dr KC.

On Wednesday, 157 CPN (Maoist Centre) and CPN-UML lawmakers registered an impeachment motion against Karki.