Pakistan has once again revealed its true colours, this time by cropping Prime Minister Narendra Modi out of a group photograph taken at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit and posting the edited image on social media. The move by Pakistan’s Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to share the SCO group photo without PM Modi has triggered widespread controversy. As is known, the SCO summit was held in Kyrgyzstan, where leaders of the organisation’s 10 member nations gathered for a group photograph. Notably, Pakistan’s PMO shared a cropped version of this photo on X, removing PM Modi along with a few other leaders from the frame. The edited image was posted in a way that made Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appear positioned at the centre among the heads of state, creating the impression that he was leading the summit. The attempt to highlight Shehbaz Sharif by placing him at the centre of the frame drew sharp criticism.
As is known, PM Modi had recently travelled to Kyrgyzstan, where leaders of the 10 SCO member countries took part in the summit held in the capital, Bishkek, on Tuesday, following which they posed together for a group photograph. However, the controversy erupted after Pakistan’s PMO posted the photo on X with PM Modi removed from it. The cropped image also excluded the President of Iran and several other leaders. By cutting the photo this way, Pakistan attempted to portray Shehbaz Sharif as positioned centrally within the group. In reality, in the full photograph, Shehbaz Sharif is seen standing fourth from the right — a fact clearly visible in the original photo shared by PM Modi on his own social media account, which showed all SCO leaders, including Shehbaz Sharif, clearly present. This exposed Pakistan’s editing on social media.
This was not an isolated instance — a video of the SCO leaders’ roundtable meeting posted on Shehbaz Sharif’s official Facebook account was also found to have been cropped to exclude PM Modi. Pakistan’s actions drew sharp reactions from netizens on social media, with many sharing the full, unedited group photos to call out the country’s conduct. In a particularly striking instance, some netizens went as far as editing photos to show Shehbaz Sharif holding a begging bowl, recalling his own past remarks about having to travel around the world seeking financial assistance. Several users also mocked the Pakistan PMO’s cropping of the photo, calling it a “childish social media trick.”
Meanwhile, at the SCO summit itself, PM Modi took a veiled dig at Pakistan, stating during the session — while Pakistan PM Sharif was present — that terrorism must not be treated as a strategic asset. It is against this backdrop that Pakistan’s photo-cropping episode has drawn particular attention.