The Star reported that this directive came from district police chief Supt Noor Hashim Mohamad who said out of the 600 policemen assigned to Iskandar Puteri, 20% were obese and another 50%, overweight.

All the out-of-shape policemen were above the age of 30, with each of them recording at least five years of service.

“We are targeting to reduce the number of our obese and overweight policemen by 50% by the end of June this year,” Noor Hashim told reporters at the launching of the “Trim and Fit” Challenge here yesterday.

The Star reported the Iskandar Puteri district police had started the once-a-week one-hour exercise every Thursday at the Johor Bahru Central Municipal Council Urban Forest Park in Taman Mutiara Rini.

The obese cops were given a red log book each while those overweight were given a yellow log book to keep track of their progress on achieving the ideal Body Mass Index (BMI).

“Starting from 2018, those who fail to maintain an ideal weight and BMI will not be considered for promotion as directed by Bukit Aman.

“It is easy to gain weight or become an overweight person but hard to shed the extra kilos as we need to change our lifestyle and diet regime,” he told The Star.