An official photograph released by the Prime Minister’s Office in Islamabad sparked scrutiny after multiple foreign leaders, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, were cropped out of the frame.
The photograph captured the standard group family portrait taken during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. In the original multilateral image, leaders from all member nations stood side by side in accordance with summit protocol. However, the version published across official Pakistani government media platforms showed the edges trimmed, effectively omitting Modi and Pezeshkian to center Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The modification drew attention across diplomatic reporting and social media platforms, with observers pointing out the departure from traditional multilateral media conventions where official summit group photographs are disseminated unedited. Neither the Pakistani delegation nor summit organizers issued a formal statement explaining the editing.
Diplomatic delegates noted that despite procedural tensions and political differences among member states, the summit concluded with the formal transfer of the rotational chairship to Islamabad for the upcoming calendar year.
Media analysts recalled that diplomatic protocol surrounding multilateral summits typically requires official state agencies to circulate identical group portraits taken by host country media pools. In previous SCO meetings hosted in Tashkent and Samarkand, participating delegations maintained standardized visual releases, making Islamabad’s editorial crop an unusual public departure in multilateral public diplomacy.
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Sources:
https://theprint.in/diplomacy/pakistan-crops-modi-irans-pezeshkian-out-of-sco-picture-to-reserve-centre-of-frame-for-shehbaz/3030744/