[3] The group's main demands were centered on decreasing royal privilege; ending employment of foreigners; establishing social welfare facilities; legalizing labor unions and instituting municipal councils composed of at least partly elected members.
One of the largest protests took place in 1956; it drew 2,000 participants, most of whom were high-ranking Qataris allied with Arab nationalists and dissatisfied oil workers.
[7] By 1963, the population of Qatar had grown increasingly discontent with the ruling family's extravagant lifestyle and Sheikh Ahmad bin Ali Al Thani's long absences abroad since he ascended to the throne in 1960.
[7][11] It soon gained popularity among Arab nationalists, individuals sympathetic to the Ba'ath Party, Qatari workers and low-ranking Al Thani officials.
[10] Ibrahim Shahdad, a professor of modern history, suggests that the actual inception date of the National Unity Front was not in April 1963 but in the late fifties, a period when many secret nationalist cells were established.
[7] The group made a statement in which it listed 35 of its demands to the government, most of which entailed less authority for the ruling family; protection for oil workers; voting rights for citizens and the Arabization of the leadership.
[9] Hamad Al Attiya issued a statement on 28 April which proclaimed that the time has come to reform the country's policies and to set up a high-society with justice and equality.
[8] The National Unity Front staged a mini-uprising in the central Doha market in response to the government crackdowns in which it reiterated its demands.
[13] The government rejected most of these demands, and in early May, around fifty of the most prominent National Unity Front members and sympathizers were arrested and detained without trial.
[15] In May, a coalition of Qatari students in the United Kingdom and the University of Cairo, whose scholarships had been cut as a result of the protests,[14] signed a petition requesting the release of the detainees.