A Pakistani youth walks out his family’s tent through a makeshift curtain showing pictures of ousted prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, right, both from Pakistan People’s Party, PPP, in a Christian slum on the outskirts of Islamabad, Friday. — AP

ISLAMABAD — Aslam Khan Khattak passed his first — and perhaps most curious — test this week in his quest to become a member of Pakistan’s parliament: He correctly named the first person to walk on the moon.

The question was posed to Khattak by judges, who have provoked both laughter and criticism in recent days in their vetting of potential candidates in the country’s upcoming elections with queries that have veered between the controversial and the bizarre.

One candidate was prodded to spell the word graduation. Another was quizzed on the lyrics of the national anthem.

Many candidates were forced to recite Islamic prayers to prove they were devout Muslims, and one — a prominent journalist — was disqualified because one of his newspaper columns was deemed to have ridiculed Pakistan’s ideology.

“The manner in which the exercise of screening election candidates is being conducted cannot even be termed as childish. It is far worse,” Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper said in an editorial Friday.

The source of the problem, according to critics, is a pair of Articles in Pakistan’s constitution — 62 and 63 — introduced in the 1980s by former military dictator Gen. Zia ul-Haq that govern who is eligible to serve in parliament.

The former dictator sought to intensify the religious nature of the majority Muslim country, and Article 62 stipulates a lawmaker “has adequate knowledge of Islamic teachings and practices obligatory duties prescribed by Islam.” It also mandates a candidate must be honest and has not “worked against the integrity of the country or opposed the ideology of Pakistan.”

Although the articles have been in the constitution for years, they haven’t played a significant role in past elections. But the Supreme Court has pressed judges vetting thousands of candidates to enforce the law more strictly in the run-up to the May 11 parliamentary election in an attempt to weed out corrupt politicians and those who may have broken basic laws, such as not paying their taxes, a common abuse in Pakistan.

Weeding out corrupt lawmakers is widely supported in Pakistan, where public graft is alleged to be rampant. But the decision by some judges to make candidates recite verses from Islam’s holy book, the Qur’an, to prove they are good Muslims has sparked outrage.

Officials “don’t have the right to determine who is a good Muslim and who is a bad Muslim, and they must not reject nomination papers just because someone could not recite verses from the Qur’an,” said Asma Jehangir, one of Pakistan’s top human rights activists.

The decision of a judge in Punjab on Thursday to reject the nomination papers of Ayaz Amir, a prominent journalist and national lawmaker, also generated significant controversy.

Amir said the judge told him that an article he wrote about famous newspaper columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee after the man’s death last year ridiculed Pakistan’s ideology. The judge did not mention what was specifically wrong with the article, which discussed Amir’s friendship with Cowasjee.

“It was a case of illiteracy. The judge didn’t understand what I wrote in English,” said Amir, who plans to appeal the ruling. “Nothing was against the ideology of Pakistan.”

Perhaps the strangest question was put to Khattak in Karachi, who was asked to name the first person to step on the moon. When Khattak said it was Neil Armstrong, the judge quickly asked who next stepped on the moon. Khattak said it was also Armstrong since he was not disabled and had use of both of his legs. His candidacy was approved. — AP