Pakistan will not participate in the upcoming five-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Film Festival in Bombay from January 27 to 31, the I & B ministry said on January 23. India has sought cinematic nominations across various sections of the festival, from all SCO member-countries like China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan. All the countries except Pakistan have sent their nominations.
Neerja Shekhar, additional secretary, I & B ministry, said that no delegation from Pakistan is participating in the festival. India took over as president of SCO following the nine-member bloc’s summit at Samarkand in Uzbekistan in September 2022, and it will host the SCO Summit before the G20 Summit in New Delhi in September this year. Despite strained bilateral relations between India and Pakistan, the latter had sent two mid-level officials from its foreign ministry to participate in the SCO national coordinators’ meeting in India in October 2022.