The students gathered at the Silver Jubilee gate of the varsity and chanted slogans against the university administration for awarding the degree to what they called a `highly controversial person`.
They said he had done nothing to be honoured with such a prestigious academic honour.
�It`s a moment of great shame for the university that people like Federal Minister Rehman Malik have been awarded a doctorate degree on political grounds and we demand its immediate withdrawal,� said a protesting student.
Meanwhile, more than 300 teachers of the university have so far signed a petition against the chancellor`s decision to award the degree during the signature campaign organised by the Karachi University Teachers Guild.
But Karachi University Teachers Society, the elected body of university teachers, seems divided on how to handle the issue.
While several teachers demand an urgent meeting of the society general body to press the university administration and the chancellor to withdraw the degree, many others feel that the matter should be left to the syndicate to decide. Dawn
Speaking to , Dr Riaz Ahmed, representing the teachers` group that wants the society`s general body meeting on the matter, said that KUTS was bound to call the meeting after 60 teachers had already submitted a requisition for it.
Under the society`s constitution, signatures of 25 teachers were needed to call a general body meeting, he said. �This is what the constitution says. A general body meeting is called even on the day of election. To insist that a meeting can`t be called doesn`t have legal or moral grounds,� he said.
He added that five members of the society`s executive council and society`s vice president and treasurer were also among those who had signed the requisition.
KUTS President Dr Abid Hasnain said that a meeting of the society`s executive council had been called on the issue.