On 16 November 1950, the Moroccan pro-independence party Istiqlal emphasises the importance of abolishing the French protectorate in Morocco and welcomes the official request made recently by Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef for the 1912 Treaty of Fez to be repealed. Istiqlal sees the protectorate as a system of political, economic and social subordination of the Moroccan people which also entails the deprivation of liberties, censure and police repression.