Lured by the cheap cost, expatriate Pakistanis are among the biggest customers returning to their homeland for cosmetic surgery in what is a rapidly expanding business in the predominantly Muslim country.

Hamayun Mohmand's Hair Transplant Institute in Islamabad is typical of clinics in Pakistan that offer breast enlargement, tummy tucks, face lifts, nose jobs and hair transplants.

He says most of his customers are people of Pakistani origin from overseas. "My biggest concentration of people is from the United States. Second is the U.K.," Mohmand told Reuters at his clinic in the capital.

Other customers getting treatment at a tenth of the price they would have to pay in the West include people of Pakistani descent from continental Europe, especially Norway and Denmark, and a few from Australia, he said.

Ijaz Ahmed, a businessman of Pakistani origin from the British city of Manchester, said he had hair transplant work done in Britain and Greece but he wasn't satisfied with the results.

"One of my friends used to go all the way to Thailand because it's very cheap there but Pakistan is also very similar. I'm from Pakistan and decided to get it here," he said.

Steadily rising economic growth is bringing with it the ways of a Western consumer culture, especially in its biggest cities -- Lahore and Karachi.

"With television programmes like Oprah Winfrey and the complete make-over programmes, people have become more conscious of their image. They've started to believe in looking good," Mohmand said.

Another Islamabad-based cosmetic surgeon, Nadeem Pasha, said the daughters of elite families, in their 20s and 30s, as well as women from the world of show business were setting the trend.

"Film actresses are among the biggest clients of plastic surgeons in Lahore," said Pasha, who declined to identify any celebrities among his customers.

The reputation of Pakistani cosmetic surgeons and the low prices they charge is spreading through word of mouth and on the Internet but dangers lurk.

"There are lots of doctors who are actually, by qualification and training, not plastic surgeons but who are calling themselves plastic surgeons," Mohmand said.

(c) Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

This is cache, read story here