This report seeks to decenter the dominant discourse of criminality and gang-violence which has become wedded to Lyari Town, Karachi, Pakistan.

The study builds upon the insights and analyses of scholars who have sought to interrogate the state of affairs in Karachi but also deviates in important ways from the questions scholars have usually asked of Karachi by exploring the one aspect on which much of this scholarship has, for various and understandable reasons, hitherto been silent. For the partiality of our narratives may hold the possibility that the very element that escapes the analysis is the one that makes or breaks any analysis.