To allow for smoother overseas money transfers, the State Bank of Pakistan has even authorized the use of a service owned by PayPal, potentially opening the way for PayPal itself to enter one of the few countries where it is banned.

Image Pakistanis are being encouraged to donate by text message or even through a service owned by PayPal, which is barred from operating in the country. Credit... Aamir Qureshi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

That new openness reflects the gravity of Pakistan’s financial situation as the government grasps for funding wherever it can. The country faces a balance-of-payments crisis, with a record $18 billion current account deficit for the last fiscal year.

On Tuesday, Pakistan announced that it had secured a $6 billion assistance package from Saudi Arabia to help with the crisis. About half the assistance will be deposited at Pakistan’s central bank, to shore up the country’s dwindling finances — it has only enough cash left to cover about two months of imports — while the remaining $3 billion will be a deferred oil payment owed to the Saudis in three years.

With Pakistan still discussing a possible multibillion-dollar bailout from the International Monetary Fund, the Saudi assistance is likely to lower the amount requested. And Pakistan has already received several billion dollars in emergency loans this year from China, its major regional ally.

Other doors were closed this year when the United States froze aid and Pakistan was returned to an international financial “gray list,” in both cases over concerns that Pakistan was not doing enough to combat terrorist groups operating on its soil.

With few options left, the government is going directly to the people.

The dam project would seem an unlikely way to galvanize Pakistanis, who in recent years have grown weary of corruption scandals and crumbling public services. Construction of the dams has yet to begin, and even the most optimistic estimates say they won’t be functional for at least a decade.

But Imran Khan, the new prime minister, is no stranger to fund-raising or sunny rhetoric. He spent years in the 1980s and ’90s raising money to build a world-class cancer hospital for the poor in Lahore, which he often cites as proof of his resolve.