Nepal PM's health issues raise concerns over governance

The health condition of Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, who was hospitalised earlier this week, has raised questions about his fitness to govern the Himalayan nation.

Ever since Oli, 67, was admitted to the Grande International Hospital here on Wednesday morning, little information has been provided by the government authorities.

But on Thursday, a doctor who has been monitoring Oli's health told The Kathmandu Post that the Prime Minister had undergone a second procedure for urethral dilation on Wednesday.

The doctor also confirmed that Oli had undergone two rounds of dialysis during his stay at Grande, despite much speculation and a lack of information from officials and attending doctors.

On Wednesday evening, a brief statement issued by Dibya Singh Shah, Oli's personal physician, and Chakra Raj Pandey, medical director at the Grande hospital, had described the Prime Minister's health as "normal".

But on Thursday afternoon, Nepal Communist Party (NCP) leaders said that Oli had undergone dialysis, of which there was no indication or information either from the hospital or Oli's physician.

Later on Thursday, ruling party Co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal, after meeting Oli at the hospital, also told the media that Oli had undergone dialysis.

"After his second dialysis, the prime minister is resting," said Dahal.

Statements from Oli's aides only added to the confusion. Kundan Aryal, Oli's press adviser, said on Wednesday that the Prime Minister had been taken to the hospital for "a regular health check-up" despite reports that he had been admitted to the intensive care unit.

Finally, on Thursday evening, the hospital organised a press conference and Pandey confirmed that Oli had undergone dialysis, but stopped short of divulging any more information, The Kathmandu Post reported.

Oli is functioning with just one working kidney that was transplanted 12 years ago in 2007 at India's Apollo Hospital.

This is not the first time Oli's team has tried to shroud his health condition.

In August, Oli left for Singapore again to undergo plasmapheresis, a process that filters the blood and removes antibodies, a necessary procedure for someone who has a transplanted organ.