Official handle shares edited image placing Shehbaz Sharif at centre; Indian PM posts full version as Pakistan prepares to assume SCO chairmanship.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister’s Office has drawn attention after sharing a cropped group photograph from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit that excluded Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several other leaders, while positioning Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif more prominently in the frame.
The image, posted on the official X account of the Pakistan PMO on Tuesday, was taken during the SCO Council of Heads of State meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The original photograph showed leaders from the organisation’s member states posing together. In the version circulated by the Pakistani office, however, Modi, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and a number of other figures-including the SCO secretary-general and leaders from Belarus and Kazakhstan-were cropped out. The resulting image placed Sharif nearer the centre of the remaining group.
PMO Photo Edit Sparks Online Debate at SCO Summit:
The Pakistan PMO captioned the post: “Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in a group photo with heads of States at the SCO Council of Heads of State Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on 1 September 2026.”
In contrast, India’s Prime Minister’s Office and Modi’s personal accounts shared the complete, unedited photograph. In that version, Sharif can be seen standing fourth from the right among the full lineup of leaders, which also included Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and others.
Hours later, amid online discussion of the discrepancy, Sharif posted the full group photograph from his personal X account. In the accompanying text he referred to Pakistan assuming the SCO chairmanship for 2027, congratulated Kyrgyzstan on hosting the summit, and noted his address to the Council of Heads of State.
The episode occurred against the backdrop of longstanding tensions between India and Pakistan. At the same summit, Modi delivered remarks emphasising the need for the SCO to work unitedly against terrorism, calling for the dismantling of terror financing, recruitment networks, radicalisation and safe havens, and warning against the use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy.
Cropped Modi Photo Sparks India-Pakistan Tensions:
India-Pakistan rivalry continues to shape even minor interactions between the two countries. Relations remain deeply hostile, marked by unresolved disputes, mutual suspicion, and frequent political friction. In this climate, cropping Prime Minister Narendra Modi out of an official SCO group photograph becomes a low-cost and highly visible way for Pakistan to signal distance. By removing him from the frame, the Pakistani side denies Modi visual equality on a multilateral platform where both leaders were present as equals. Such an act requires no formal statement or diplomatic risk, yet it sends a clear message of exclusion. At home, the edited image plays well with nationalist sentiment, allowing the government to project defiance and prioritise domestic political messaging over the norms of protocol that usually govern summit photography.
The dual posting of different versions of the same photograph by Pakistani accounts-first the cropped official image and later the full version from the prime minister’s personal handle-has left the episode as a minor but notable footnote to the Bishkek summit. It underscores the persistent sensitivity that continues to colour even multilateral interactions involving India and Pakistan, even as both countries participate in the same regional forum.