In an effort to seek aid to stop a worsening economic crisis that has nearly depleted its foreign exchange reserves, Pakistan is in last-minute talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

It struggles to pay off sky-high levels of foreign debt and has just enough cash to cover less than a month's worth of routine imports.

After 10 days of negotiations with the government aimed at releasing critical foreign money, an IMF delegation is scheduled to depart the nation on Thursday.

There are growing concerns for the economy in a crucial election year as annual inflation in Pakistan rose to above 27% in January, the highest level since 1975.

This week, the rupee hit an all-time low against the dollar, falling from 175 to 275, making purchases and payments more expensive in Pakistan.

One of Pakistan's most urgent issues is its dearth of foreign currency.

Recent factory closures in Pakistan's industrial heartland of Faisalabad, including Jubilee Textiles, were not caused by the country's frequent power outages, which have plagued it for years, but rather by a lack of access to dollars to pay for the supplies they require.

caption,Many factories like this one have been idle across Pakistan in recent weeks

"If we can't import, how can we manufacture? We've already made a loss," its manager Fahim told the BBC, adding that all its 300 workers had been sent home.

Jubilee's printing machines have only just restarted after shutting last month. Piles of white cotton sheets sat in iron tubs, covered by a light coat of brick dust, when the BBC visited, with the only sound the drip, drip of an industrial washer.

Walking through the network of frozen machines, Fahim said the factory had run out of the dyes they import from China, not because they weren't available, but because they say their bank wouldn't clear the dollars to pay for them for weeks.

According to analysts, the government had been holding the bank's exchange rate artificially high behind the scenes which was contributing to the lack of dollars in the system. At the end of last month, they allowed it to drop, which could help some businesses, but also push prices up.

caption,Imports have been stacking up in ports, including here in Karachi

Businesses and industries across Pakistan said they have had to slow or stop work while they also wait for goods they have imported that are currently stacking up in ports.

In late January, a government minister told the BBC that there were more than 8,000 containers piled up in Karachi's two ports, containing goods from medicine to food. Some of that has started to clear, according to local media reports, but much is still stuck.