KARACHI: An American woman, who remained in the public eye for months since traveling to Karachi last year in pursuit of a Pakistani man, finally left Pakistan by boarding a flight to New York on Friday, police said, ending her more than three-month stay in the South Asian country.
Onijah Andrew Robinson, 33, had arrived in Karachi in October last year to meet 19-year-old Nidal Ahmed Memon, who she had befriended online, but Memon later abandoned her saying his family was not agreeing to their marriage. Memon’s whereabouts remained unknown during Robinson’s stay in his country.
Robinson’s story came to light after local activist Zaffar Abbas publicized it on social media, with Sindh Governor Kamran Khan Tessori intervening to extend her expired visa and arrange a flight home.
Robinson finally left Pakistan on Friday night following her discharge from a government-run medical facility in Karachi, according to Karachi South Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Asad Raza.
“The American woman, Onijah Andrew Robinson, was discharged from the hospital today,” DIG Raza told Arab News. “She has left Pakistan for her home in the US“
Robinson was admitted to the Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Center on Feb. 1 and was discharged from there on Feb. 7, according to the hospital report. Doctors at the hospital had diagnosed the US woman as having bipolar affective disorder (BPAD), in which a person experiences periods of extreme mood changes.
The American woman, who remained in media glare and previously refused to leave Pakistan on multiple occasions, had not filed a formal complaint against Memon, according to Karachi authorities.
A spokesperson for the US consulate in Karachi said late last month the mission was aware of the situation, but could not comment due to privacy laws. Shafqat Ali Khan, a spokesperson for Pakistan’s foreign office, said it was a matter for local authorities in the Sindh province to deal with.
During her months-long stay in Pakistan, a number of Pakistani men had also come forward with marriage proposals for Robinson.
“If she wants to settle here, then I’ve bought a new house in Gulshan-e-Maymar [neighborhood]. I will accommodate her there and also give her $5,000,” Muhammad Ismail, one such contender, told reporters in Karachi last month.
“She has been betrayed and cheated. A promise has been broken, but we welcome the guest.”
American woman, abandoned by online paramour, leaves Pakistan for New York after months
https://arab.news/vjkx8
American woman, abandoned by online paramour, leaves Pakistan for New York after months
- Onijah Andrew Robinson, 33, had arrived in Karachi in October last year to meet 19-year-old Nidal Ahmed Memon
- Memon abandoned her saying his family was not agreeing to their marriage, his whereabouts remained unknown
Rating firm S&P says it won’t rush Iran war downgrades, sees risks for countries like Pakistan
- Agency says it is monitoring indebted energy importers as higher oil prices strain finances
- Gulf economies seen better placed to weather shock, though Bahrain flagged as vulnerable
LONDON: S&P Global said it would not make any knee-jerk sovereign rating cuts following the outbreak of war in the Middle East, but warned on Thursday that soaring oil and gas prices were putting a number of already cash-strapped countries at risk.
The firm’s top analysts said in a webinar that the conflict, which has involved US and Israeli strikes against Iran and Iranian strikes against Israel, US bases and Gulf states, was now moving from a low- to moderate-risk scenario.
Most Gulf countries had enough fiscal buffers, however, to weather the crisis for a while, with more lowly rated Bahrain the only clear exception.
Qatar’s banking sector could also struggle if there were significant deposit outflows in reaction to the conflict, although there was no evidence of such strains at the moment, they said.
“We don’t want to jump the gun and just say things are bad,” S&P’s head global sovereign analyst, Roberto Sifon-Arevalo, said.
The longer the crisis was prolonged, though, “the more difficult it is going to be,” he added.
Sifon-Arevalo said Asia was the second-most exposed region, due to many of its countries being significant Gulf oil and gas importers.
India, Thailand and Indonesia have relatively lower reserves of oil, while the region also had already heavily indebted countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka whose finances would be further hurt by rising energy prices.
“We are closely monitoring these (countries) to see how the credit stories evolve,” Sifon-Arevalo said.
