Pakistan crops PM Modi out of SCO group photo; India posts full image with Pak PM

Pakistan on Tuesday (September 1) faced severe backlash online as it cropped out Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit group photograph posted on social media.

The official X (Formerly Twitter) account of Pakistan Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) posted two group photographs from the SCO Council of Heads of State Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Also read: PM Modi at SCO Summit: Countries backing terrorism must get ‘firm message’

The images showed Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif with Russian President Vladimir Putin, China’s President Xi Jinping and other world leaders but five other leaders including PM Modi and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian were cropped out.

Pakistan PM posts full photo

However, PM Modi and Indian PMO shared the full image including Pakistan PM Sharif.

“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,” Pakistan’s PMO captioned the two images.

After facing severe backlash on X, Pakistan PM later posted the full group photograph on his personal account.

Also read: SCO may be a pro-China club but India still needs to be there

“Today, I was honoured to address the SCO Council of Heads of State Meeting in Bishkek as Pakistan assumed the SCO Chairmanship for 2027. I congratulated the Kyrgyz Republic on successfully hosting the Summit and steering the Organization with distinction,” Sharif wrote.

'Height of pomposity'

Reacting to Pakistan PMO cropping Modi out of group photo, former Union Minister MJ Akbar termed it as “height of pomposity”.

“This is how Pakistan converts itself into the laughing stock at every international conference. That censorship of the photograph is the height of pomposity because you have to look at it carefully. Not only has our PM Modi been removed from the picture as if he wasn't there, but the Pakistan PM has been put at the centre of the photo while China's President Xi Jinping has been put on the margin,” Akbar told ANI.

“Pakistan PM cropped the image to not show PM Modi. Meanwhile, Modi shared the full pic. Typical Pakistani mindset,” an X user said.

Meanwhile, at the summit, Prime Minister Modi on Tuesday urged the SCO to confront countries using terrorism as an instrument of state policy and reject "double standards" in the collective fight against terror financing and recruitment, remarks widely viewed as a direct swipe at Pakistan.

In the presence of Sharif, Jinping and many other global leaders, Modi said that "we cannot remain confined to an action-reaction approach" in the fight against terrorism as terrorist activities continued to pose a serious challenge to humanity.