THE news photo of a mule trying to beat the winter chill with a sweater borrowed from its master. The chimpanzee in the Lahore zoo partaking of evolution with sips of the tea served to it to keep warm. Not too long ago, the invasion of Dawn’s lifestyle event by dogs, both ferocious-looking and cuddly. The animals were out in strength in December 2013 to state their relevance to the times.

When the Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif chose to take the visiting Turkish prime minister on a cultural tour — to Aitchison College, where else? — he chose the buggy as the transportation mode for the occasion.

But that perhaps was not appreciation enough for the Turkish help Shahbaz Sahib has been getting to improve the flow on Lahore’s roads. So the chief minister stood proudly in his latest get-up, like Omar Sharif playing a character from the Muslim past in a misty Hollywood period film, as a pedigree horse was delivered to His Excellency Tayyip Erdogan.

For those with other preoccupations, a non-governmental organisation fell back on an old method to communicate. It hired a donkey cart, foisted it with banners carrying some basic information for the local government aspirants, and made it roam the streets of Faisalabad.

By far the most eye-catching sight was when the state minister for education, Mian Baleegh-ur-Rehman arrived at a conference in Bahawalpur riding a camel adorned with fast Cholistani colours. Accompanied by the host, the vice-chancellor of Islamia University Bahawalpur, Rehman was there as the chief guest at the trail-blazing conference on camels.

The conference rounded up a series of appearances hinting at some kind of revival of interest in the camel. The camel sacrifice on Eidul Azha is an option more and more Pakistanis are going for with time and in Lahore, it is usual for the sellers to announce availability of camel meat in advance to ensure a good number of buyers.

If this according to the supply-demand theory indicates a rise in the camel population, the country’s parallel-cures discourse has also been flooded with references to the magical powers of camel extracts, including camel bone which can help get rid of arthritis pain, not to speak of the one that can stave off evil magic. Camel milk is increasingly cited as an effective potent against ailments. Sellers in Karachi, being more enterprising, have deemed it profitable to unfurl notices offering milk at Rs200 a litre.

In backward Lahore, you can have it for half the price, provided you are able to locate the ‘nomads’ and their ever-disappearing caravans. Lahore, though, has seen merit in following the Karachi beach in using the camel as a vehicle for making a safe enough cultural statement.

The Punjab capital has pushed its famed tongas into near-oblivion and into the less-advanced districts. But it has allowed the camel-driven carriage to add some spice to the proceedings on The Mall.

This somewhat abrupt ‘revival’ of the camel obviously feeds the debate everyone here is eager to take part in. The advance of the camel has to be, inevitably, linked with the Arabisation of the country, as another sign of how the growing links with the Gulf are forcing the converts to emulate without any thought for their local roots and surroundings.

That debate is not going to end soon in the desert our political landscape has turned into. In the meanwhile, it would not do business interests any harm to view the camel conference in a local context, which is native to the desert and Cholistan.

According to a handout by the Islamia University Bahawalpur this first ever International Camel Conference brought together more than 300 delegates, including researchers, scholars, scientists, camel breeders and industrialists from all over the world. Papers were presented focusing on “the safety and growth of this old friendly animal”.

For his part, Mr Baleegh-ur-Rehman “agreed over the establishment of an International Research Centre on Camel at Bahawalpur and assured complete cooperation on behalf of the federal government for its establishment, with the view that more research and work was still needed in this field to highlight the socio-economic and scientific importance of camel”.

He expressed pleasure over the participation of national and foreign delegates in the conference and termed it a big achievement for the promotion of the basic objective of the conference as the papers and the recommendations made by the delegates would help a lot in finding better ways to utilise this historical animal.

He recalled that “recently China had started trade through camel” keeping in view that camel transportation was much better in tough climatic conditions and hard areas while the role of camel for our national defence would always remain highly important so we had to focus on further growth of this animal in own and national interest.”

Definitely, our “own” interests dictate the federal government lives up to its promise. There are plenty of reasons to invest in camel breeding, to protect and invest in the “historical animal”. Among other dangers, it needs a better defence against disease, like the one which reportedly killed 120,000 camels in Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur and Bahwalnagar in the space of two months in 2011.

And before the research widens and a centre for the purpose in Bahawalpur is established, it is good to have the stories emanating from the area having the camel without the horrifying cries of a ‘kid’ accompanying them. A camel serving the national interest is a relief from the camel-kid who is a source of collective shame.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.