Dhaka, Aug 30 (IANS) Bangladesh's former military ruler Hussain Mohammed Ershad may escape punishment for violating the country's constitution following his meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after which he "looked quite happy", his aides said.

The meeting Sunday took place at Ershad's instance, three days after the high court invalidated the seventh amendment to the constitution that had ratified Ershad's declaration of the martial law in March 1982.

The former military strongman's aides told The Daily Star that Hasina "asked Ershad not to worry much about his fate".

They told the newspaper that their leader "looked quite happy coming out of the meeting".

Ershad was earlier quoted by media as telling aides that he would seek Hasina's "blessings" and tell her that "past is past".

Ershad, 80, is a lawmaker whose Jatiya Party is a constituent of the ruling Hasina-led alliance.

Ershad, then the army chief, filled the political vacuum caused by the assassination of President Ziaur Rahman in May 1981.

But he took power directly as the chief martial law administrator in 1982, later got himself elected president and went on to rule as the country's longest-serving head of the state.

He ruled till December 1990.