PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Care Commission has launched crackdown on illegal aesthetic centres as one outlet was sealed on Thursday in Dabgari Gardens, the hub of private clinics in Peshawar.

Dr Nadeem Akhtar, the chief executive officer of KP-HCC, said that they had held meetings with industries, commerce and technical education, health and labour departments to regulate aesthetic centres and save people from health hazards.

“These centres will be regulated as per prevalent provincial laws to prevent operations of illegal outlets,” he said. He added that such establishments would be classified into aesthetic medical and surgical clinics and beauty salons and classification would be based on the nature of services provided by a particular establishment.

“Aesthetic clinics, which provide services falling under the definition of healthcare establishment, shall be registered by KP-HCC, whereas beauty salons that provide cosmetic and non-medical services shall be registered by labour department under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Shops and Establishment, Act, 2015,” he said.

HCC chief says such outlets will be regulated according to law

Section 25 of the said Act provides for registration of shops and establishments for a fee, issuing a registration certificate and maintaining a register.

This way, a database shall be available at the provincial level, which can be used by labour department; industries, commerce and technical education department; and KP-HCC for regulation of quality, human resource and prices.

Whereas establishments providing services of both aesthetic clinic and beauty salon shall be registered with KP-HCC and labour department for the respective services, and shall be regulated accordingly.

To ensure quality control, KP-HCC will assess the operations of aesthetic clinics through quality of service standards as per rules and regulations of the commission. It will monitor beauty salons periodically to ensure that only non-medical cosmetic services are provided, using the monitoring tools as per law.

These will be regulated under Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Shops and Establishment Act, 2015, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Consumer Protection Act, 1997, like any other service industry.

The two Acts are implemented by labour department; and industries, commerce and technical education department, government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Regarding the staff credentials control, there are relevant regulatory and licensing bodies in Pakistan for credentials of human resource of various service industries.

The staff credentials shall be regulated for aesthetic clinics through education, training and experience of health care service providers as determined by the respective council. In the case of aesthetic clinics, the required staff is licensed by Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).

In this respect, PMDC has issued ‘credentialing pathways of aesthetic medical practice’ in 2022 in which the credentials of aesthetic physicians and surgeons have been determined. The qualifications of those running beauty salons are diploma in beautician and certificates issued by Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Tevta) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

About price control for aesthetic clinics, HCC has submitted amendments to the Act that include authority to regulate prices of healthcare services. Once approved, the prices of aesthetic centres will be regulated by the commission.

For beauty salon, the district authorities have a mechanism for price fixation and control of commodities and services. The prices shall be regulated by price control committees, working under district administration like any other services sector.

Mr Nadeem said that the commission carried out 9,100 inspections of medical clinics, diagnostic centres during the last one year and 1,491 were sealed, 2,391 were registered while 2,821 healthcare establishments were issued notices to rectify deficiencies and enhance service standards.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2025