American woman refuses to leave Pak, sits outside lover’s house
Karachi, Jan 30: In a bizarre love story that has gone wrong, Onijah Andrew Robinson, an American national, has refused to leave Pakistan as her 19-year-old lover in Karachi failed to get his family’s approval for marriage.
Robinson refused to take a flight back home on Wednesday and created a major scene at the Karachi International Airport, first refusing to undergo immigration procedures and then later refusing to board the Qatar Airways’ flight to New York.
The entire drama eventually led to the flight being delayed by nearly one hour.
The 33-year-old had travelled from the United States to Pakistan in October to get married to her online lover Nidal Ahmed Memon. Robinson states that while the boy agreed to marry her, his family refused and relocated to a new place from their Garden area residence in Karachi city.
Abandoned by her lover, the American woman had been sitting outside his house since then, refusing to go back to America and demanding a compensation of at least $3,000 per week along with a Pakistani citizenship.
With her tourist visa also expired now, Robinson has been grabbing a spotlight in the area even as the Pakistani and US authorities continue to convince her to travel back to the United States.
“Robinson came to Karachi in October and stayed around the airport area for at least seven days. Later on, the authorities told her that she needed to leave the airport. From there, she came to the Garden area at the address of her lover only to find out that his family had relocated elsewhere and the door was locked,” said a local resident.
“It has been months now that she has staged a sit-in in the parking lot of the same building her lover used to stay in. NGOs and authorities have offered to arrange her air ticket to the US but she insists on staying back. Instead, she is now demanding $3,000 per week along with a Pakistani citizenship,” he added. (IANS)
Pak decides to criminalise begging
Islamabad, Jan 30: The government of Pakistan has finally decided to criminalise begging following multiple complaints from foreign countries after thousands of Pakistanis abroad have been caught in illegal activities and begging resulting in a major global embarrassment and visa bans for travellers from the country.
As part of the move, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry on Thursday decided to propose addition of the term “organised begging” to the Section 3 of the ‘Prevention of Trafficking in Persons (Amendment) Bill 2024’.
Islamabad has received multiple complaints from foreign countries – especially members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Iraq and Malaysia – about the increasing cases of Pakistani nationals caught begging in their respective countries. (IANS)
NASA astronauts take first spacewalk together
Cape Canaveral, Jan 30: NASA’s two stuck astronauts took their first spacewalk together Thursday, exiting the International Space Station almost eight months after moving in. Indian-origin commander Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore floated out to perform maintenance work and wipe the station’s exterior for evidence of any microbes that might still be alive after launching from Earth and escaping through vents. The pair expected to stay just a week when they arrived at the space station last June. But their brand new ride, Boeing’s Starliner capsule, encountered so much trouble that NASA decided to return it empty. (AP)