En­er­gy Min­is­ter Franklin Khan is dead.

In a brief post min­utes ago, Prime Min­is­ter Kei­th Row­ley ex­tend­ed "his deep­est con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly of Sen­a­tor the Hon Franklin Khan".

The Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter so­cial me­dia page wrote that "the Prime Min­is­ter is ex­treme­ly sad­dened by the pass­ing of his col­league and friend who will be re­mem­bered as a man who ded­i­cat­ed his life to pub­lic ser­vice. Dr Row­ley mourns the loss of a pa­tri­ot and son of the soil. May God bring com­fort and strength to his loved ones".

News of his pass­ing comes as a sur­prise as just two weeks ago, Khan was speak­ing to the me­dia about set­ting up a com­mit­tee to in­ves­ti­gate the Ni­quan ex­plo­sion and seemed in good health.

Back in 2017, Khan fell ill while va­ca­tion­ing in Thai­land, the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment was hes­i­tant to con­firm whether he suf­fered a heart at­tack as was spec­u­lat­ed at the time.

The par­ty did con­firm that he was ill though and was hos­pi­talised.

It was lat­er that the PNM con­firmed that he had had surgery and was back home in T&T and rest­ing and re­cu­per­at­ing.

Last year Khan un­der­went a "mi­nor med­ical pro­ce­dure" and missed an OPEC meet­ing.

Again there was very lit­tle in­for­ma­tion at the time about the rea­son for the mi­nor pro­ce­dure.

In the past few weeks, the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) wrote to Khan in his ca­pac­i­ty as Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness to have the Par­lia­ment Cham­ber sani­tised af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley test­ed pos­i­tive for the Coro­n­avirus.

For years Khan served as the chair­man of the PNM.

Af­ter the 2015 gen­er­al elec­tion, Khan was ap­point­ed to the Sen­ate. He was ap­point­ed Min­is­ter of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment on Sep­tem­ber 11, 2015.

By Oc­to­ber that same year, Khan was ap­point­ed Min­is­ter of En­er­gy and re­mained in that post un­til his pass­ing.

Khan was first elect­ed as the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Or­toire/Ma­yaro in 2002. He was then ap­point­ed Min­is­ter of Works and Trans­port, a po­si­tion which he held un­til May 2005.