Balochistan minister Sarfaraz Domki passes away

KARACHI: Balochistan’s minister for local government and rural development Sardar Sarfaraz Chakar Domki passed away on Monday at the age of 55 in Karachi after battling lung and kidney disease.

The body of Sarfaraz, who had been undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Karachi for the past 10 days, was to be shifted to Lehri in Balochistan’s Sibbi district on Monday for burial in his family’s native ancestral graveyard, said his brother Sardar Hair Bayar Khan Domki.

President Asif Ali Zardari expressed deep sorrow and grief over Domki’s death, extending condolence to the bereaved family.Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti also expressed grief and sorrow over the death of the late minister, remembering him as “a shrewd, reliable politician and a tribalfigure”. “Sarfraz Chakar Domki always played a positive role in the political and tribal system of Balochistan and was an active member of the Balochistan cabinet,” Bugti said. Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah also expressed sorrow over the provincial minister’s death, saying: “Sarfaraz’s services for PPP will always be remembered”.

Sarfraz Domki, who was elected to the Balochistan Assembly from PB-8 in Sibbi on a Pakistan Peoples Party-Parliamentarians (PPP-P) ticket, was a prominent figure as the chief of the Domki tribe in Balochistan.

He won the 2024 Balochistan Assembly election by securing 27,677 votes as a PPP-P candidate. He had previously served in the Balochistan Assembly as the provincial minister of Balochistan for labour and management in a tenure spanning from August 2018 to August 2023. Earlier, he also served as the provincial minister for culture, archives, and tourism in 2018 for a brief period from August 30 to September 8. Domki was a prominent political figure in the Balochistan Assembly since 2013.