Is astronomy really enough? One of Sagan's degrees was in biology. That combination, biology plus astronomy, was one of the qualities that made him valuable to NASA, who put him on the command team of the Viking Mars landers. You might think Astronomy is an academic pursuit, then all of a sudden you're responsible for the success or failure of a billion-dollar mission...not the happiest time in Sagan's life. He picked conservative but safe areas and thought the Vikings landed safely, the life sciences tests didn't go well as a result. And without the bio degree it's unlikely Sagan would know enough to make "Intelligent Life in the Universe" a best-seller.
I would have liked to go into astronomy myself, but it was a very difficult career for a white male American to pursue - since the late 1980s "equal opportunity" laws and federal research contracts have strongly favored women and minorities over white males in "hard" sciences, biology being the chief exception.
If you really want to move up in the astronomy world, you might want to try volunteering at a professional astronomy convention. Especially the check-in desk, you meet everybody.
As for Pakistanis believing in conspiracies: these people have been misgoverned for generations. They are convinced that the people they know best in government are crooks and/or plotting against them, so why should they think better of foreigners? Of course, many of the "educated" know better but I note, sadly, that usually these people do not make an effort correct the discourse of their misguided fellows but let it slide, or manipulate paranoia for their own ends.