SOCIETY THE CHANGING FACE OF LYARI.

Venturing into the narrow lanes of Lyari, I first reached Cheel Chowk, a landmark junction that was once a symbol of terror during the area's gang wars, and then passed Maulvi Usman Park, commonly known as Bhaiyya Bagh, a football stadium that has put the oldest Karachi settlement on the world map for its love for football.

The smiling faces overlooking their shops in the marketplace led me to my destination: the Computer Sciences Department (CSD) in Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University Lyari (BBSUL), established by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led Sindh government in 2012. The large corridors of the university were buzzing with male and female students going in and out.

It was pleasantly shocking to see that Lyari - a place once known to the outside world only for its violence and killings - now harboured a rich, intellectual space for its students. Though built using limited resources, the collective efforts and dedication of students and university teachers to bring life to classrooms and labs shone through.

Over the past few years, Lyari has managed to successfully become a fledgling hub of Information Technology (IT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) advancements.

Once known to the outside world only for violent gang wars or its love of football, Karachi's Lyari is now an upcoming hub of tech innovations led by its youth

For instance, three students of BBSUL came together to invent an AI-based walking stick that assists visually impaired persons navigate public spaces by notifying them of any obstacles in their way. It is monitored by an app called E-Walk and is available in three languages, for both iPhone and Android users.

Inventions such as these have become a catalyst for not just a technological revolution in Lyari, but also offer a radically different way of life to its residents, whose lives were once marred by internecine gang wars that claimed thousands of lives during the past three decades.

The youth in Lyari has put in concerted effort to bring about change and create a new status quo. Today, boxers, rappers, footballers and young entrepreneurs are emerging from Lyari, an area of around 600,000 inhabitants.

Some of the youth credit their aspirations, in fact, to the experience of decades of violence. Young entrepreneur and former student of BBSUL Noor ul Najam is among them. Running a software house with a five-member team in Lyari, Noor lost two of his friends in 2017.

'Some of my friends joined gangs and eventually...