"This is a challenge that we are attuned to," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said when asked about the economic difficulties that Pakistan is currently facing.
"I know that Pakistan has been working with the IMF and other international financial institutions," he said and added, "We want to see Pakistan in an economically sustainable position."
According to the spokesperson, Pakistan's macroeconomic stability is a topic of conversation between the "Department of State and our counterparts at the White House, the Treasury Department, among others."
Highlighting that the conversations are "ongoing", Price said, "We are supportive where we can be, to our Pakistani partners."
Elaborating, he said, "These often do entail technical issues, oftentimes these are addressed between the US Department of Treasury and our Pakistani partners.”
Earlier today, Minister of State for Finance Aisha Ghaus Pasha said the government was willing to accept all conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to revive the deal with the institution.
“The government is willing to make tough decisions,” Pasha said during a briefing to the Senate’s Standing Committee on Finance.
According to the minister, the government doesn’t want to burden people, but that the ‘IMF wants to steer us in a different direction.’
The lawmaker highlighted that the country was up against tough times. “The situation is extraordinary and it calls for efforts in unison,” she stressed.
Pasha added that the government was fully cognisant of the situation and in process of engaging the IMF.
“The notion that we do not have a crisis-management plan at work is false,” she maintained.
According to a report, Pakistan is facing existential multi-dimensional crises of politics and economy with a highly dysfunctional state. It is about much more than democracy and debt. Short-term fixes and political engineering may not work this time. The country needs a radical break from the past policies but nobody wants to do it.
Hence Pakistan could sink deeper into the quagmire especially if the IMF programme is not resumed within the next few weeks. There is no sign that the talks with the IMF are going to start soon as was previously indicated by the prime minister.