No surprises that President Asif Zardari has conceded defeat once again, allowing Iftikhar Chaudhry to appoint the judges he wants. Since taking power, Zardari has taken one bold decision after the other — and humbly surrendered each time. I don’t know if the president has some master plan that involves retreating each and every time but for now he has certainly lulled his opponents into a true sense of security.

The list of people who have made Zardari cower is quite impressive. First there was Nawaz Sharif and the lawyers’ movement, who weren’t about to accept any nonsense about a ‘minus-one formula’ and forced Zardari to reinstate all the deposed judges, including the beloved Iftikhar Chaudhry. Then, Zardari had to back down when all the opposition, and even some coalition, parties decided they wanted nothing to do with the NRO.

The Zardari government also tried to tangle with the army, if the political equivalent of a welterweight taking on Muhammad Ali can be described as tangling. The ISI was placed under the jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry, the army said, “No way,” and a day later the government retreated like the French in World War II. Then, after the Mumbai bombings, the government told India they would send the ISI chief over. That, too, was unacceptable to the army and so it didn’t happen.

Zardari has even had to concede ground to his hand-picked prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gillani, handing him control, symbolically at least, of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

What’s inexplicable is the hatred so many feel for Zardari. We shouldn’t be angry; we should feel sorry for him.