Zuffar Haq, 36, of Oadby, Leicestershire, said he was spurred into action after witnessing first-hand the poverty in the Asian country.

Since then he has collected defibrillators, beds and sheets from six UK hospitals and the goods are due to arrive next month.

He said that the equipment, much of which is out of date in the UK, would have been scrapped if he had not sent letters pleading for help.

Decades behind

"I decided to act and try to help the hospitals after I was in Pakistan with my mother seven or eight years ago," said Mr Haq, who has an electrical business in Derby.

"She needed medical treatment, but the facilities there were minimal and most of the equipment was old and crude.

"Things felt about 20 years behind the UK.

The defibrillators we sent over last year have been used regularly and every time they are, they save a life Zuffar Haq, businessman

"Since then I have managed to send out one consignment of items worth about �300,000, but the value of this shipment is in excess of �1m."

The items, which include old-fashioned emergency trolleys, operation beds and nebulisers, will be handed over to a number of hospitals in the Punjab district of Pakistan, close to Toba-Tek Singh.

"All the equipment given to us has been superseded by new items in this country and is no longer of any use to the NHS," said Mr Haq.

"But items which are 10 years old here, are 10 years more advanced that the equipment in Pakistan.

Donated drugs

"The defibrillators we sent over last year have been used regularly and every time they are, they save a life."

Hospitals that have donated equipment include Liverpool Women's Hospital, South Staffordshire Health Authority, Birmingham Children's Hospital, the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and two private hospitals.

Drugs valued at �5,000 have been donated by a Cheshire company

The �7,000 cost of delivering the goods has been met by the International Hospital Relief Trust, a charity established by Mr Haq.