Pakistan's central bank governor Muhammad Yakub has already sent an SOS to the multilateral funding agency that the country's foreign currency reserves were down to a precarious $600 million while its debt had mounted to $32 billion. Hit by sanctions after the nuclear tests, Pakistan, according to Yakub, owes at least $9 billion to domestic banks for local residents' foreign currency accounts.

"We are servicing debt as far as we can. There maybe delays. We are in a very difficult situation," he told The Wall Street Journal in a telephone interview. Considering Pakistan's urgent need for help, the IMF might simply reactivate itssuspended programme and World Bank and ADB could also pitch in, financial journals said.